Crazy Beautiful
by Zoe1105
Summary: I'd chosen Edward because he was suppose to be my life. But then, why do I feel stranded? Please read and review!
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters sadly they all belong to Stephanie Meyer though I would love nothing more for this Christmas than to own Jacob!

Storyline: This story begins with Bella coming back from Italy with Edward. She never asks Edward to take her to his family to vote if she could be turned into a vampire or not. They are just on their way back from the airport to her house.

Chapter 1

The ride back to Charlie's house was entirely quiet. The only sounds you could hear were coming from the car´s engine as he speeded up the road towards my house. The rain had stopped and I was admiring the brightness of the stars as I looked out my window. It was supposed to be one of those unforgettable moments especially if you are with that special someone. A memorable night if you think of the irony of me saving and immortal. In fact, it was supposed to make this moment so much more enjoyable as I was admiring the stars with my love again. And yet, though I was with him again, I felt different.

As Edward grabbed my hand I looked and him and smile a little hoping he would not notice where my thoughts were taking me. I felt a little uncomfortable even after everything we´ve been through.

"Are you okay?" – he asked.

"Yeah. I´m just feeling a little tired you know… running around almost the entire Italy to save you can tire people." – I answered looking at him as I smiled a little to hide my discomfort. Is not that I didn´t trust him, it was more the fact that I didn´t trust my emotions right now. I was a little tired and somewhat confuse. I knew there were some boundaries that were crossed with his decision of leaving but I never knew it would feel this way. I mean, it was as if we were close right now in the car but in reality an entire sea was separating us. Maybe if we talked about it everything would clear up and we could go back to normal, back to what we were before any of this happened.

"You know I´m glad you did." – he said as he kissed my hand and kept driving. I looked at him and turn to face the cloudless night again. After another half hour Charlie´s house came into view. After Edward parked in the sidewalk he got out of the car and walked around to open the door for me. "I´ll meet you in your room."

"Okay."

I walked towards the front door and opened it as slowly as possible. It was a quarter till 2:00 so by this time Charlie was probably sleeping in his room. I tried to get in as quietly as possible. I wasn´t in the mood of having a discussion with Charlie right now about my wereabouts tonight, much less tell him Edward was here. I closed the door as silently as I opened it and heard a light snore, probably coming from my father. I turn towards the sofa and there he was. I smiled and walked towards him. 'Sorry dad' as I tucked him a little before turning around and going up the stairs into my room. When I got in I started looking for him and there he was in the corner of my room looking outside my window. He turned, looked at me and smiled as I closed my door and walked towards my bed tiredly.

"Sleep. You look really tired. Don't worry, I'll be here when you wake."

I just nodded and started to get into bed. He started walking to me until he was in front of me and kneeled in front of me and touched my face with his right hand.

"Your father won't forgive me easily."

"It's not his choice to make. And even if he doesn't forgive you easily I know he'll forgive you eventually. Or more likely, will have to since I've chosen you."

He smiled.

"Sleep. We'll talk tomorrow." He said as he kissed my forehead and lay beside me.

~ O ~

The night was exactly as he expected it to be. As he walked down the seashore he stopped and looked at the sky. He was tired. He was exhausted but not physically. It was more a mental battle which he had tried to fight but lost miserable. H just couldn't accept what minutes ago had happened in his life. Everything changed from one moment to another. One day he woke up being someone happy, complete, and by the end of the night all he was left with was contemplating stars in the middle of the night alone.

"You knew there was a possibility that this would happen."

He sighed painfully.

"Do you think I don't know that?"

Sam sighed. He laid back into one of the rocks that were some feet away and looked straight at him. He knew that Jacob was hurting pretty badly. Specially after seeing the way he looked at her and how he used to relax every time she was over at his house. Or how he always tried to better himself just so that he could tell her how he managed everything. He tried so hard to make her see that he had changed and for what, so that at the end of the road she choose someone else. Someone who had abandoned her and had hurt her in the worst way possible.

"Jake, you need to forget her. There is nothing you can do. I know it hurts you, but believe me its better this way."

He looked back at Sam.

"How did you work that one out? Don't try to tell me that you understand what I'm going through right now. You have Emily." He spat a little angry. He turned to look at the ocean as he tried to calm himself down.

Sam took a deep breath.

"I don't have time for this. If you like to sulk here the entire night be my guess. Bottom line is she choose him. Deal with it. Though I'll let you know one thing… many decisions will have to be made after her choice. And we as a pack and as a family need you to be in your best judgment of mind to be able to make decisions based on what's best for our family."

Jacob sighed deeply and looked back at Sam.

"Don't worry. I know what's expected from me."

"Trust me… you have no idea." Sam said.

Jacob watched as Sam turned around into the forest and started walking slowly towards it.

'Great. What the hell was that about?' He sighed again and looked back into the ocean. 'He's right though. Even after everything that he did to her, she still chose him and there is absolutely nothing I can do. Worst is I know that I need to let her go but damn it, it hurts so much. Why Bella?'

He lay down in the sand and started thinking about the many things that had changed since Edward left. How she didn't even care about him when Edward was with her the first year and suddenly his disappearance had point her into his direction. How depressed she was when Edward left and she went to him to look for comfort. How he saw the sadness slowly leaving her eyes with each day that passed fixing those motorcycles. The way all her troubles disappeared from her eyes the moment she saw him.

'Why can't you notice what you've done to me? Or is it that you really don't care at all. Either way, this the last time my thoughts are wasted in these meaningless thoughts of you. Sam is right. If everything I did for you means nothing at all to you then it's not even worth thinking about you anymore. From now on I live for me and my family.' Jacob got up and started walking home knowing that tomorrow it would be a new beginning.

**Authors Note**: Well this is the end of the first chapter. I know it's a bit short but this is just the introduction. Let me know if you like it or if you don't. This is my first story ever so if you like it I'll keep updating. I promise it will get better soon!!


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Twilight series character. They all belong to Stephanie Meyer though if she ever gets tired of Jacob I call dibs on him

Chapter 2

I was running through the woods again. He couldn't leave me. This couldn't be happening to me again. I kept running as fast as I could. Finally I saw the beach. I kept running towards it till I finally reached the shore. I was out of breath but didn't care. All I cared was to make him stay. I looked left but he wasn't there. I looked right and then I saw a man with his back turned to me. He turned around to look at me but the sunset was blocking his face. I walked slowly towards him to see if I could see who it was. After several steps I eased up and let out the breath I had unconsciously holded in. I smiled and relaxed; it was Jacob. He was looking straight at me, but what I saw wasn't exactly something I was familiar with and much less coming from Jacob. In his eyes there was a complete blankness, an emptiness that spoke a million words at a time. It was as if he was not looking at me at all, in fact it was as if he was looking straight through me.

'Jake, I'm sorry. I really am. Please listen to me' I said. I know I'd hurt him when I went after Edward but he had to understand. I needed to explain my reasons to him so that we could go back to normal. I kept calling him but he didn't reply.

'Jake, please say something. I'm sorry okay!' I begged him to listen but he kept looking straight through me.

'I'm sorry!! Are you listening to me?' I almost screamed at him but to no avail. It was pointless. He didn't even acknowledge the fact that I was trying to talk to him. I started walking towards him. I had to make him stay. This was my fault and I had to fix this now. He had to listen to me. I kept walking towards him. I tried to get closer to him but felt that was getting me nowhere near him. I started running to reach him but it was a lost effort. What was going on? I started running faster but he was fading away. Everything was getting darker and darker and then he suddenly looked straight at me and I stopped.

'Finally' I said. He kept looking straight at me and that was when I heard him say:

'Goodbye Bella.' He said as he turned and started disappearing into the night.

'Wait! Jacob! Jake!'

Everything went black and all I started to see was the light from the sun entering my bedroom window. I watched how the leaves from the trees moved with just a slight touch of air. It was a nice warm and bright morning, something not normal at Forks. It was definitely the beginning of summer.

"Are you okay?" I heard Edward asked me. I turned around on my bed so I could face him.

"Yeah, why?" I asked suspiciously. 'I hope I didn't talked in my sleep'

"You kept fidgeting and moving your head side to side as if you were having a nightmare the entire night."

"It was just a weird dream. That's all. Nothing to worry about I assure you." I said hoping that would be a more than satisfying answer for him but somehow I knew that he would keep asking since he couldn't get in my head to know for himself. And good thing he couldn't or else I wouldn't know what to tell him. Not about my thoughts on the car and much less about the dream from last night.

"Do you want to talk about it?" He said touching my face softly with his cold pale right hand.

"It really doesn't matter. I just dreamed someone was leaving me again. It's really not a big deal since you are here with me again." I said and smiled at him. I kissed his hand as he was caressing my lip and looked at him. He laughed and got up from my bed and walked towards my closet.

"Charlie's coming to wake you up."

I nodded and waited for my father to open the door but instead of opening it like usual I heard two knocks.

"Bells are you awake?"

"Yeah dad. Come in." I said while getting off my bed. It was a very nice morning. The sun was in its entire splendor shinning through my window. Many would rejoice on finding the weather like this especially at the beginning of summer, but for me it meant another day without Edward. He is used to go out with his family and hunt on sunny days, which leaves me the rest of the day without anything better to do until he returns. Charlie opened the door and walked in looking around as if he was looking for something else in the room.

"Dad, are you okay?" I looked at him weirdly.

"Yeah, fine. Why?"

"Um because you're looking in my room as if you've lost something in here." I kept looking at him hoping he wouldn't find Edward in my closet. I mean, after everything that had happened when Edward left, finding him in my closet would definitely increase his already big enough list of 'Why hate Edward Cullen'. I started searching for something to wear to try to distract him. I needed for him to go away so that I could talk with Edward before he left hunting. There was so much I had to tell him since he left months ago.

"Not at all. I actually came to let you know that I'll be going to Billy's today. We're going to watch the game over there. You want to come? I mean, you don't have to watch the game but if you like you can visit Jacob while we old people watch the game."

I stiffened up and stop what I was doing. My mind went straight for my dream. There was no way Charlie knew about this but I felt a strange emotion in the pit of my stomach with just hearing his name.

"What?" He asked.

"Nothing." I said as I started looking for something to wear again. 'I need to calm down. It was just a stupid dream, though after everything that has happened I need to talk to him also. I don't want anything to change between us.'

"So, are you coming or staying?"

"Sure I'll go with you. Just give me a couple of minutes to change and I'll meet you downstairs."

"Okay. I'll be waiting downstairs." He said turning around closing the door behind him and going downstairs to wait for her.

As soon as Charlie closed the door, Edward came out from the closet and was looking at me a little strange.

"I thought you'd want to spend the day with me after so much time apart."

"I want to, but I know you usually go hunting with your family when it's this sunny outside." I said while I turned and kept looking for some jeans I could wear. Finally after finding the right fit I walked towards my closet to find a shirt though I saw Edward was still giving me a strange look. Was that hurt in his eyes? I smiled and walked to him. I put my arms around him and kiss him lightly. "Besides, it's not like the sun comes out every day here in Forks to enjoy it and I'm pretty sure we won't be there the entire day. Just till the game ends." I said and smiled at him.

"Okay, then I'll meet you here when I'm done." He said. With that, he gave me a quick kiss and started walking towards the window.

"Have a nice hunt!" I smiled at him. He looked at me, smiled and got out the window.

With Edward gone, I grabbed a light brown tank top and changed. I brushed my teeth, fixed my hair and headed downstairs where Charlie was waiting for me to go visit Jacob.

"You ready?"

"Yeah."

"Let's go then." He said while opening the front door for me and closing it after he got out.

~ O ~

'Hey guys, have you found anything yet?'

'Nothing here'

'Same here'

'Sam, do we really have to keep looking? This vampire hasn't been seeing or heard of for almost two months now.'

'I'm with Embry on this one. We've been doing rounds for the entire night. We also get tired you know…' I heard Paul say expressing his boredom during the hunt for Victoria. We had been searching for almost two months now but there was no trace of her at all. It was as if she had vanished and left not even a small bit of scent that could draw us to her. And even though Sam didn't show it, I knew he was also getting frustrated like the rest of us.

'Fine. We'll head back to Emily and rest there. We'll come back and search at night.'

~ O ~

On the way to Billy's house, I started thinking of the many ways I could tell Edward about my feelings towards his leaving last year. I mean, it's not like I'm an expert in relationships, but I still don't get how love will make you leave the person you love the most just to protect her.

'Perhaps I don't understand his love at all. '

We reached Billy's house in no time. Or perhaps it was that I was so focused on trying to explain myself his reasons for leaving that time flew by me and I didn't even notice. Charlie parked the car.

"Here, help me with this won't you" – he said while giving me a six pack of beer. "Can't run out of refreshments in the middle of the game."

"Yeah."

We started walking towards Billy's house. He opened the door before we could knock and was waiting for us to come in. As I walked in, I put the beer on the fridge and turned around to ask Billy about Jacob but he anticipated my question.

"He's out."

I just nodded and started to look around. My dad probably called him while I was in my bedroom changing to let him know I was coming too.

"Is he with Sam?" I looked at him and he just nodded. I thought about asking him other questions but I really didn't know if he would give me an honest answer. He probably already knew how much I was hurting Jacob so it wouldn't surprise me if he lied to me to protect him. But that just left me with another thought in mind. 'What in the world do I do now?'

"Hey Billy, bring me a beer. We are about to start now." My dad called Billy to the living room and I just started to look around. The past couple of days I was here, I hadn't been inside Jake's house. Well only when he had tried to hide his already told secret and I had barged in to see with my own eyes if he was in the house or not. But I wouldn't count that one since I just got in and saw him sleeping in his room and then got out. I started walking towards Jacob's room. 'Maybe he is here after all like last time and Billy didn't want to tell me.' I had high hopes of finding him here but when I opened the door his room was empty. I started looking around his room. Unlike Edward's room, Jacob's was a mess. His bed was undone and there were pieces of clothing around the floor.

'Figures, werewolves' transformation' I smiled. I looked at the open window, he was definitely out. I kept looking around and found a framed pictured in a small table at the corner of his room. I walked towards it and took it in my hands. It was a picture of him along with Embry and Quill. They were laughing in the picture. You could tell that this picture was taken way before any of the transformation started to happen. They looked as if they didn't have a care in the world.

'They are such great friends.'

But that gave me an idea. Usually when they traveled as werewolves, they'd go meet Emily who I had been introduced earlier this year. 'Maybe I could ask my father to let me borrow his car and see if he is there.' I couldn't understand my sudden need to talk to him but this was definitely worth a try. So I headed to the living room to find my father.

"Dad, can I borrow your car?" I said while walking into the living room where Charlie and Billy were so focused on the TV screen.

"Well, where are you going?"

"I'm just going to visit a friend of mine, Emily. You must know her Billy don't you?" I said quickly hoping my dad would just give me the keys without further questions.

"Yeah. She is Sam's girlfriend. You know her right Charlie?"

"Oh yeah, Sam's girlfriend. I didn't know you know her Bella?"

"The guys introduced me to her early this year. Well, can I borrow your car?"

"Yeah, sure sweetie. Here are the keys." As he handed me the keys, I just turned around and headed out of there and into the car.

"Be careful!"

"Okay. I'll come pick you up later dad. Bye Billy"

"See ya."

I got into the car and started driving towards Emily's house. 'He has to be there.'

~ O ~

I was glad for Sam's instructions, running always made me think of other things besides Bella. I still couldn't understand why she had to save his life when he didn't think of hers before leaving her. And yet, even after all he's done to her she still goes to him as if nothing had happened. It was a great blow to know that everything we had during those months weren't even on her mind when she made the decision of sticking with him. Yes, I was definitely glad for the distraction of running through the forest. When I reached the meeting point, I transformed back and put the clothes I had hidden around the forest. Soon enough I saw Embry and Paul on my right already changed. I looked left and Sam was coming with the rest of the pack behind him.

"You guys, go on ahead to Emily's. I need to talk to Jacob before going there."

I looked at Sam strangely. What was that all about? We had absolutely nothing to talk about. We said everything that had to be said last night so there was no point in talking right now. And to be honest, I was as famished as the other guys. But the guys just nodded and left. I looked at Sam.

"What now?" I said irritated by the fact that the others were probably getting the bigger steaks and leaving me the smallest ones.

"How are you feeling?"

"Starving, thanks for asking." I said sarcastically. "Would you mind telling me what this is all about? Or is this another lecture coming from you? Because if it is I'll let you know that I am not in the mood of hearing you right now."

"You didn't say anything during the hunt. That's not normal in you, especially with the guys slacking off as they were doing today."

"Then perhaps you should be giving this little speech to them instead of me."

He kept looking at me as if he was expecting me to react another way but frankly I couldn't. I was beyond pissed right now. I was getting tired of his little speeches. Ever since I had become a werewolf he had always been harder on me than the rest of the pack. And I still couldn't understand why but at this point I didn't care anymore. It wasn't my fault that I also got caught in these werewolves' transformations so he had to deal with whatever problems he had and move on.

He sighed and looked away. "You still don't get it do you?" he said in a low tone as if he were talking to himself.

"What?" I asked since I couldn't hear him well.

"Nothing." He turned around to head to Emily's. But before leaving running he looked at me again. "By the way, your little friend Bella's there. Just thought you might want to know." Then he turned away from me and started running towards Emily's house.

'Great. Just great.' I breathed deeply and looked towards the sky. 'This is just what I needed. I am definitely not ready to face her yet. If I do it now, I will only be breaking my promise again. Well, it seems I'll be resting away from the pack today.' So instead of heading towards Emily's house I decided to take off the opposite way. I took off my clothing, transformed again and started running. 'This will probably get me another memorable speech from Sam again. Crap!'

~ O ~

I had reached Emily's house with no problems at all and right now I was helping her do the table though honestly I didn't know why she bothered. They would usually come in, sit down and wait for the food to be put on the table to dig in. None of them seemed as if they even notice that the table was always done nicely for them.

"I heard that your lovely vampire was back in town." Emily said.

"Yeah."

"You must be happy then. I know I am every time I see Sam walk in from the back door. Is he staying now?"

"Yeah, that's what he told me."

I didn't know why, but I found it so relaxing to be able to talk to her about Edward. I mean, I could talk to anyone about one part of Edward but Emily actually knew what he was. I felt like I could really talk to her naturally about him without having to worry about giving away his secret.

"What about Jacob? I thought you cared for him deeply too."

That was another thing with Emily. She didn't go around the bush with her questions. If she had one, she would come straight to you and ask what was on her mind.

"I care for Jake. But he knows that I love Edward. Besides, Jacob is my friend and he'll always be." 'My best friend in fact' I wanted to add but Paul was coming from the forest and knowing that he could probably hear anything I'd say to Emily because of his wolf senses I decided not to continue. At least until I could talk to Jacob.

Emily just nodded at me and looked at the door. The guys came all talking and laughing about the hunt.

"Where's Sam?"

"He stayed behind." It was Embry the one that answered her question and then looked at me. "He had to talk to Jacob so they'll be here a little later."

I nodded at him. 'Great! More waiting.'

"So, what did you cook for us today honey?" Paul asked Emily.

"Well Paul, I was actually going to offer you a special plate."

"Really? Do you hear that guys? Ha! I have my own special plate." Paul said a little excited about Emily's news while looking at the others on the table.

"I thought you had steak for everyone since its Sam's favorite food." I said still wondering about this special plate she was offering Paul.

"No, no, you see, I was actually considering making wolf steak since Paul is offering himself to be the meat. I'm sure Sam will have no problem with this after catching you trying to hit on me." Paul gulped and the other guys started laughing at him.

"Yeah guys. Let's thank Paul for offering himself." Quil said laughing at Paul's face.

"Oh please Emily, do tell Sam about it. I would love nothing more than to watch Paul get a good beating." Embry added to the already laughing table.

"You know I am kidding Emily. I would never do that to Sam. How could you even think that?" Paul tried to retract his words.

"Yeah Emily. How could you ever think Paul would be able to do that?" said Quil still laughing.

"Do what?" Sam appeared on the door. He looked at Emily and stopped. It was as if he was looking at her and falling in love with her for the first time over again. You could see the love he had for her reflected in his eyes. After looking her thoroughly, he walked up to her and kissed her passionately.

Paul sat himself next to Embry. While Sam was finishing his little entry, I saw Embry getting close to Paul and whispered to him "Oh I do hope she tells him."

"Shut up Embry!" Then they started laughing again.

"What's going on?" Sam asked while hugging Emily backwards.

"Nothing!" Paul quickly said and tried to change the subject so that Sam would notice. "Boy I am hungry."

"Well, only for that one Paul you'll be the last one to start eating." Sam said. The guys started laughing again at Paul.

"What? Why!!??" Paul started protesting. Then suddenly Sam looked at me.

"Jacob's not coming."

I felt like I suddenly became the main attraction of the family. Everyone's eyes were on me with Sam's little announcement. I mean, even for me it was a little bit of a disappointment. I thought I would have definitely caught him here but looks like I would have to wait for later to talk to him.

"Is he okay?" I asked.

He nodded. "He just needs to sort some things out."

"Oh, but Bella you are staying right? I mean, you helped me and everything." Emily said hoping I would stay.

"Yeah sure. I mean, if you guys don't mind sharing your food that is." I was a little disappointed but tried not to show it.

"We don't mind at all. You know you are always welcomed here Bella." Sam said. I nodded and sat myself next to Quil.

"Hey, you can have Jacob's food. Serves him right for not being here." Quil said.

And so I had lunch with them that day. It was actually quite refreshing. Eating there with them I remembered what it was like to belong to a complete family. Even though they were constantly making fun of each other, you could see that they cared for each other deeply. And so we all had lunch laughing and sharing funny stories of each other.

~ O ~

I didn't know where I was. All I knew was that I kept running and running through the forest. It was middle of the day by now and I was still looking for food. Many enhancements came with our transformation to wolves but, even with my nose enhanced, I couldn't smell one small scent of food around. I was definitely lost but didn't really care much. I just wanted to get as far as possible from Emily's house. After a while running around and turning from tree to tree I caught a familiar smell but I couldn't quite identify it. I knew I had smelled it before, but didn't remember whose it was. Then suddenly I saw a tint of red moving through the trees.

'That's her!'

I started running faster trying to catch her. She probably knew I was following her since she upped her speed. Then she stopped and turned around to face me. I stopped in front of her. She just looked at me and started laughing.

"I thought wolves traveled in packs. Isn't that what people say?" She said. I growled at her.

'This is the end for you leech sucker.'

She started to laugh again.

"I'll show you why wolves should travel in packs." She said confidently while walking towards me. I growled again at her.

'Bring it on.' I started running to attack her before she left running again.

~ O ~

"I remembered the first time we threw Embry down the cliff and into the ocean. He was screaming like a little girl saying we were crazy." Sam said while the rest of us laughed about it.

"Yeah, I was wondering what was that all about. Was that some kind of initiation or like a celebration for transforming?" I asked.

"You saw us?" Embry asked me and I just nodded.

"Yeah. I was with Jacob down the road. He was telling me how you had changed since you started spending time with Sam."

"Can you believe that love? They thought I was the bad guy for trying to help them." Sam smilling said while caressing Emily, who was in his arms right now sitting in his lap.

"Well let's be honest Sam, you did look a little mean to me when I first saw you." I said.

"Looked? No, no, no. Let's correct that sentence. He **was** mean. You saw for yourself what he did to me!" Embry said with a scared face while we all started to laugh at him.

"Oh you boys cry too much. My Sam would never do anything to hurt you, right love?" Emily said while she turned to look at Sam but she saw that Sam wasn't paying attention anymore.

"Sam, are you alright love?" We all looked at Sam's worried face.

"Jacob!" That was all he said to himself before lifting Emily up in his arms, putting her down and running towards the forest transforming.

"Jacob? What's going on? Quil?" I asked impatiently.

"I feel it too!"

"Let's go!" Paul was the one that lead the others out of the house, transformed and run toward the forest with an incredible speed. After seeing how they left so abruptly, I knew that this could only mean one thing. Something must have happened to Jacob.

Well, here it is. The end of Chapter 2 is finally done. Please review it and let me know what you think about it.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Twilight series characters. They all belong to Stephanie Meyer though if she ever gets tired of Jacob I can think of a couple of things I could do with him.

Chapter 3

Nervous wreck would definitely describe my mental stage right now. I was pacing in my room from side to side waiting for the phone to ring. Emily had convinced me to go home since Charlie had called saying the game had finished already. So I picked him up and headed home but not before I made Emily promise me to call when Jacob got home. So here I was still waiting for that stupid phone to ring. Millions of images came into my mind when I heard Sam just say his name. I knew immediately that he was either in trouble or hurt. Otherwise he wouldn't have stood up so abruptly to go after him.

I heard my window pulled open and I looked expecting to see Jacob, but it was just Edward. A wave of disappointment came to me since I wanted to believe it was Jacob. That way at least I would have known he was alright.

"Hey!" he said.

"Hi." I looked at him then right back to where the phone was in my bed. He must have noticed my worried face since he got a little worried.

"You okay?"

"You asked me the same question this morning, but this time I have a different answer. I think Jacob got hurt."

He came to me smiling and started caressing my face with his right hand.

"Why do you think that?" I looked into his eyes, breathed deeply, and pulled slowly away from him. I started walking towards my window. Maybe looking outside would ease up my nerves a little. I had this little feeling in the back of my head that perhaps he would appear through the trees and I would know then that he was alright. But it was hopeless. He wasn't there and the phone hadn't ringed yet. I was getting a little frustrated by now.

"I was eating with Emily and the guys when I heard Sam say his name and got up from the table in a hurry and left running towards the forest. Then the other guys also got up and went after him."

"Bella…" He came to closer and hugged me. "I'm sure he is fine. Otherwise, Billy would have called your father already. And your father is downstairs watching TV so I don't think it was anything serious." He tried to comfort me but I knew deep down that even if Jacob got in trouble, my father would be one of the last people to know about it. Billy would not call home unless he had a good cover up story he could explain to my dad without him getting suspicious about Jacob.

"Besides, he is a werewolf. I'm sure he can take care of himself." As soon as I heard those words leave his mouth, I became a little defensive about Jacob. I turn around to look at him.

"Being a werewolf doesn't make him be exempt from getting hurt Edward." I spat at him. Then I got out of his embrace and started pacing from side to side again. I didn't know why Edward's comment bothered me so much. I mean, I knew he was only trying to comfort me but he didn't understand at all. If Jacob got hurt, I am pretty sure that part of the reason would be me.

"Well forgive me for trying to calm you but I still don't understand why you are getting so worked up over this. He is a big boy you know, I'm sure he can take care of himself."

I stopped pacing and looked at him. What the hell was his problem?

"Like he took care of me when you left?" The moment those words left my mouth I started to wish to take them back. This wasn't exactly how I wanted to let him know how much he had hurt me when he left. But then the phone finally rang and I forgot about everything else. I quickly looked for it in my bed and answered praying it wouldn't be bad news.

"Hello? Emily?"

"Bella! Hi, no it's Billy. I was calling because Jacob asked me to let you know that he was fine."

"Oh! Well is he okay? I mean, what happened?" After knowing that he was alright, I sat in my bed and started to calm down.

"Nothing. He just had a little difficulty getting his meal but nothing serious."

"Well can I go see him?" As I was hearing Billy, I knew he was trying to hide something again. His voice was exactly the same as when Jacob had first transformed and he tried to prevent me from seeing him. Not to even mention the bad excuses he was giving me over the phone which gave him away so easily this time.

"Well Bella, I think it's kind of late right now."

"Well I wasn't planning on right now, but maybe tomorrow?"

"Uh, he says he is going to be busy tomorrow with the guys. I'll let him know that you want to see him so that he calls you, how about that?"

"Okay. Um, thanks Billy for letting me know. And tell him he needs to be more careful and to please call me as soon as he can."

"Will do dear, will do." And with that, Billy hanged up the phone. I still felt like he was hiding something from me but this time I knew what I had to do. I was going to go over to Billy's tomorrow anyways and see him. If he was fine as he said he was, then I really wouldn't find him there.

"See? I told you he was fine."I looked at Edward as he was walking and sat beside me. I had forgotten Edward was in the room. 'That's weird; I've never forgotten about him when he is around me. And I usually search for him everywhere.'

"Listen, about earlier I'm really sorry."

"No. I deserved it." He grabbed my face with both hands and made me looked at him. "I know I left Bella, but trust me. I won't ever do that again."

I nodded and he kissed me.

"I love you" he said and I smiled at his words

"I know. I'm so tired."

"Well then, let's get you to bed shall we." I smiled again and started to get under the covers of my bed. Then he laid himself beside me like every night as I slowly drove myself to sleep.

~ O ~

"Did she believe you?"

"Well, you know Bella more than I do. I think that's probably as much as she is going to believe me anyways." Billy said as he was looking at Emily.

"Ouch Emily!"

"It serves you right. Maybe your stupid ego will think twice before trying to challenge a vampire on your own again." Emily said angrily. She was sitting at the right side of my bed while bandaging my right arm.

"Emily, that's enough. Jacob, calm down." I heard Sam say as he was looking out the window. I'm sure he was probably thinking about what had just happened tonight. Or perhaps, he was inventing a new speech for me since I had just violated a straight order. In finding a vampire, we were supposed to notify the others before attacking. So basically, the fact that I was badly injured just had one reason: me.

"How are you feeling Jake?" I looked over to my right at Embry as if he had suddenly grown two heads in front of me.

"Well, let's see Embry. I have a slash on my lower back, a scratch on my right arm, a deep bruise on my left leg that hardly allows me to walk and… oh yes of course let's not forget about my wounded pride over a vampire hurting me." I sarcastically answered Embry. Right now, I was beyond pissed. I know it was my fault for not letting the others know on time, but in a way I felt as if I didn't care about what could happen. There were so many thoughts in my head and I was looking for a way to vent out. I guess finding Victoria might have put me in a bed badly injured but it kind of served its purpose.

"Stop your whining Jacob. You're lucky enough we got there on time and if it wasn't because you were injured, perhaps we would have had a better chance at killing Victoria."

"Please, if it wasn't because of me you wouldn't have even found her." I stated raising my voice. I could feel myself starting to get angry.

"Found her? Is that what you think you did?" Sam turned around from the window to look straight at me as he started to raise his voice. "She almost killed you Jacob in case you haven't noticed. While she is still out there running from place to place, you are here laying in your bed because you can hardly get up from it. So don't tell me that you helped us find her because as far as I know, following Victoria was the last thing in our minds after seeing the way she left you on the ground. It is because of you, your stupid arrogance, and the situation you putted yourself into what made Victoria be the last thing in our minds last night. None of us even had the slightless thought of even following her thanks to you."

"Since when do you need my permission to follow a vampire? If you were so worried about killing Victoria, you should have left me there and gone after her."

"What part of pack do you not understand Jacob? Tell me, what part is not clear enough for you?"

"What the heck do you want from me Sam? Do you want me to admit that what I did was wrong? Fine, I admit it. It was stupid and reckless, but what's done is done. I can't change what happened." By this time, we were both yelling at each other. I felt as if any minute now we would both transform and start a fight.

"If you can't even understand the meaning of belonging to a pack much less you'll understand what is expected from you."

"That's enough Sam." Billy interrupted. We kept starring at each other. I started to feel this need to challenge Sam for blaming me. It was not a normal feeling since it was the first time that thought had crossed my mind.

By now the entire pack was looking at both of us. It was as if they were expecting something big to happen between Sam and me. He was the first to break the glaring contest we had started as he looked at Paul and the rest of the pack.

"We're leaving. Jacob needs his rest. Let's go." They all nodded and started walking one by one out the door. Sam was the first without even apologizing. He just walked out the door without looking back nor saying anything else.

Embry tapped my left arm as he was saying his goodbye "See you later bro."

I saw Quil nodding at Embry's statement and turned around from my night table. I didn't even know what was so interesting about my night table but he didn't move from there the entire night. "We'll see you tomorrow 'kay?"

Then Emily came up to me and gave me this pitiful smile. I couldn't even tell if it was because of the stage I was in or if it was because of my fight with Sam.

"I recommend you try to have a good night sleep if you can. It'll be worst by tomorrow, I can assure you that." And with that, she also left behind all of the other guys.

Billy was the last one to leave my room. I suspected he wanted to say something to me but he sustained from saying anything at all. Perhaps, it was better this way. I needed to think anyways.

'What in the world just happened?'

~ O ~

It was morning already, though the view from my window could lie about it. Unlike yesterday, this morning started all gray and misty. Just one of those mornings a normal person would love nothing more than to stay in bed till really late. Therefore that would definitely exclude me since I was way far from being normal. I turned to hug Edward but when I looked he wasn't there.

'Ugh! Where is he now?'

I got out of my bed, brushed my teeth, changed into something casual and headed downstairs where I could hear the TV going on. 'He probably is watching the TV.' I thought. What I found took me by surprise. There was Edward watching some kind of game with Charlie in the sofa. It must have been a replay since it was too early for a game to start at 7:47 in the morning, but what I really didn't understand at all was Edward watching the game. I've never known him being interested in sports apart from baseball. I kept starring though I felt something weird must have happened between them while I was sleeping in my room for I've never seen Edward as nervous as he was right now. He turned and saw me at the end of the stairs and smiled at me. He looked at Charlie.

"Well, it was nice to talk to you Charlie. I have to go now as you already know." He told Charlie as he got up and started walking towards me.

'Don't tell me he is leaving again?' I had to ask.

"Where are you going? I thought we would be spending the day together? He was in front of me as he put both his hands in my face and gave me a kiss in the forehead.

"Have dinner with me tonight?"

I stared at him. After his question I knew immediately that something must've be going on. He can't eat normal food so having dinner as a date is out of the question. Unless there really was something going on and he didn't wanted to tell me with Charlie in the room. I wanted to ask him what was wrong but then a thought came to me. 'Wait! What am I saying? This is perfect. I'm going to take this chance to visit Jacob.' I smiled inwardly and just nodded.

"Okay. Sure, if you want to."

"I'll pick you up at 7. Is that enough time for you to be ready?"

"Yeah. I'll be ready at 7" He smiled again and kissed me lightly on the lips.

"I'll see you tonight then."

"Kay"

After saying his 'see you later' Edward left and I sat at my fathers' side. I started watching his movements and glaring not even caring if he became aware of me. His eyes were still glued to the TV screen as if he hadn't noticed I had sat next to him. Yep! Something was definitely going on. First, Edward was acting strange this morning. He even got out of bed without waiting for me to even open my eyes. And now, my father was not even acknowledging my presence next to him.

"What's going on dad?" I looked at him as he jumped at my question. He looked at me still nervous and stood up quickly from the couch making a movement with his hands as if he was searching for something in his pockets. I would take a wild guess and say it was his keys though I don't even know why since he was used to accidentally leave them on the table.

"Nothing. Why do you think that something's going on?" Now it was my time to stand up from the couch.

"Well you're acting kind of strange. Um, your keys are on the table by the way." I said after getting tired of seeing poor Charlie still looking for his keys.

"Oh, thanks. Uh, it's because I am already late for work. So, I'll be seeing you. Have fun today."

Charlie got the TV remote, turned off the TV and went straight for the door. As soon as he was out, he turned the ignition of his car on and headed off to work. 'Well that was weird.' After Charlie left, I decided that it was my time to leave as well. I was going to find out what really happened to Jacob Black last night since I was sure Billy was lying all along. I grabbed my keys, got into my truck, and started driving to Billy's house.

~ O ~

Today started with a crappy morning. I didn't have a good sleep thanks to all my injuries. And when I was finally getting a bit of a nap, I woke up to the sound of an alarm I didn't even set though I have a slight idea of who did it. 'If I ever find out you did it Quil, you're dead.' I was way beyond pissed by now since I couldn't even walk out of my bed. It was worst considering that not only I couldn't even limp anywhere, but I sadly had to accept that Emily was right on this one. Today, it definitely hurt worst than yesterday. Ironic is what I would call the fact that I was running along the forest to help me forget about thinking,and now the only thing I could do was think as I laid here in my bed with nothing else capable of doing. 'Great!'

Out of all the things I would wish to think about, my mind had decided for me to put my thoughts into Bella. I hadn't seen her since that night. To be perfectly honest I didn't wanted to. I thought about that day when she found out I was a werewolf. Even though she had dated a vampire by that time, I thought that my secret would definitely push her apart. I remember how after our night talk I was ready to give her up since I thought I wasn't so important in her life. But then I was so surprised when I found her waiting for me at Emily's after I fought Paul. As I entered Emily's house and looked into her eyes, comprehesion filled my heart as a deep feeling hit me. I knew then, the feelings I started to feel the day I met her a year ago had definitely evolved into something more. She may have not being able to see it, but I knew they where there.

No matter how hard I tried to forget her, that constant need to know if she was alright was always following me everywhere. Even now after everything that has happened, I still worry about that idiot hurting her again. 'He doesn't deserve you. Why can't you see that?'

~ O ~

I had reached Billy's house by now. After I paked my truck I walked towards the front door and knock up twice before Billy opened the door to greet me.

"Hmph. Why doesn't it surprise me to see you here so early in the morning?" I smiled at Billy's greeting.

"Hello to you too Billy. So, where is he?"

"The only place he can be right now… his room." He said after letting me pass. "I am making Jacob breakfast. Do you want some too?"

"Uh, sure."

"Do you want something in specific?"

"Um, you know what… surprise me." I told him right before making my way to Jacob's room. As I walked towards his room I started to think of the many ways I could start talking to him. For some reason I was nervous. 'Maybe I should let him start the conversation. No! Maybe I should start the talk and ask him to let me get it all out before he can say anything. Or just try to act as if nothing had happened until he wants to talk about it.' As I thought those words, I found myself in front of his door unable to open it. 'Oh, get a grip Bella. This is your friend Jacob the one you are going to talk to.'

Finally after finding some courage, I knocked his door twice and waited for his reply.

"Come in" I heard. I slowly opened the door but the sight I found wasn't exactly what I expected. I mean, I knew he was hurt and that he was trying to hide this from me, but I never thought it was this much. As our eyes met, I saw so many emotions cross his mind though the only one I could grasp on was surprise.

" Bella!"

So here it it. Chapter 3 is finally done. I hope you guys enjoyed it. Merry Christmas to all and oh yes, please read and review it. I really want to know your thoughts on if you like it or not.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Twilight series characters. They all belong to Stephanie Meyer though if she ever gets tired of Jacob I can think of a couple of things I could do to him.

Chapter 4

Finally after finding some courage, I knocked his door twice and waited for his reply.

"Come in" I heard. I slowly opened the door but the sight I found wasn't exactly what I expected. I mean, I knew he was hurt and that he was trying to hide this from me, but I never thought it was this much. As our eyes met, I saw so many emotions cross his mind though the only one I could grasp on was surprise.

" Bella!"

I just stood at the door. He was sitting in his bed wearing a black tank and some blue knee jeans. 'He probably thought I was Billy bringing his breakfast.' I still couldn't believe the stage he was in. I looked at each of the bandages he had on. Even though I wasn't close to him I could tell that all his wounds were deep. So many things came to my mind but the one thought that bothered me the most was the one where part of the reason he was like this was because of me. I looked him in the eyes and glared at him.

"Did you think I wouldn't find out? What did you do?" I demanded an answer but he just turned his face towards his window. I could see in his face that his emotions had changed. He took a deep breath as if to calm down and turned again with a determined look on his eyes.

"What's this to you?" I was taken aback by his question.

"Look, I can understand that you are pissed, but that doesn't mean that you have to get yourself killed over this. There is this thing called communication which actually helps clear misunderstandings in case you didn't know."

"There's no communication that can fix this Bella. You said so yourself, remember? I can't fix you like I can fix cars, or motorcycles, or whatever it is that you need me for. So what is it that you came here for this time?" Now it was my time to look out the window. I knew I had to talk to him, but I never came up with a way to start this conversation. Thought I tried to prepare myself for this, I had to acknowledge that right now I was not ready to hear this. His words had hit me really hard. I know I used him as my comfort when Edward left me, but I really did care for him. After everything that had happened, how could I not? I calmed myself after I remembered not to get him upset.

"That's not fair Jake." I looked at him again. "You are my best friend. I remember I told you that also." He looked out the window again. I started walking towards him well aware that he was upset with me right now, but I didn't care. What I had said was the truth. He knows that he is my friend above anything else. 'He won't hurt me.' With that thought in mind I sat beside him while he was still looking away from me at the window. I could see he was contemplating saying something else but then I saw his face as he breathed in and out to calm himself down. This time I knew it was safe to be at his side.

"I'm sorry." He said as I grabbed his left hand to let him know it was fine.

"It's okay. Don't worry about it." After our little argument I thought it would be best not to keep talking about this right now. "I would ask you how are you feeling but I think the bandages speak for themselves." He smiled at that and turned to face me. I smiled after seeing his face and I knew then that we were alright. That's all I needed to know right now.

"How's the leech?" I panicked a little bit. Talking about Edward right now was the last thing on my mind. I know this conversation would probably hurt him and I didn't want that. I wanted to avoid any conversation involving Edward, since I kind of know how Jake feels about me. So I tried to play it all cool and see if I could get out of it without having to say too much about Edward.

"Jeez Jake, you always have a way with words, don't you?"

"Well you know… I can always go back to blood sucker if you like. Do you like that one better?" He said smiling. Now I was certain he was provoking me by being sarcastic, but at least he was in a better mood. That was one of his best traits, he had such a great sense of humor he could turn any uncomfortable situation into a silly one with just one sentence. It's also the reason why talking to him was so relaxing for me.

"He is fine if you really like to know." I looked at his wounded arm and draw my fingers to trace the bandage someone had placed there. He just kept starring at me though I had a small feeling in the back of my head that kept telling me that he wanted to say something though he never did. "You still haven't answered my question you know."

"Which one?" He asked.

"Why didn't you tell me?" I turned my gaze from his wound to his face. He was still looking at me when he reached with his left hand part of the locks that fell from my hair all the way into my right arm.

"I didn't want to worry you." Then he caressed my face. I looked straight into his eyes and he just smiled at me. I felt something started to stir itself up inside me though I didn't know what. I just kept starring at him as if this was the first time I had actually looked at Jacob Black. I was mesmerized by the look of his eyes, which I shouldn't have been considering since Edward was back with me now. But the strangest thing was that I kind of liked it that way.

There was a knock on the door. He dropped his hand from my face and looked at the door to see Billy opening it. I just looked away to the floor. 'What in the world just happened?'

"Breakfast's ready. Can you walk?" He said while looking at Jake.

"I can try."

"Don't you think it would be best if you eat it here in your bed? You look pretty beaten up as it is." I said, a little worried that he might actually hurt himself more than he was right now.

"Well thanks Bella. That actually makes me feel a lot better." I laughed to his sarcastic reply.

"Well you know, I'm pretty sure cubs can get hurt worst than adult wolves considering they don't have the necessary experience to prevent these types of situations." Billy started to laugh at my comment while I laughed at Jake's shocked face.

"I thought we had agreed that my height and physique actually accounted more for you being so small and fragile. Besides, I am a werewolf. Enough said. This battle is already won by me."

"Whatever! Let's go cub." I said as I stood up from the bed and waited to help him since he was so determined in having breakfast at the table. He glared at me and refused my help. I started to laugh when he tried to start walking though I got a little worried when I saw him flinch with one of the steps. "Just put your arm over my shoulder."

"I don't need your help." He told me.

"Jake, really, is this you trying to show off? Don't be an idiot. Let me help you." He flinched again. I just took his left arm and put it around my shoulder. He glared at me.

"This one doesn't count to the whole grown up thing." I looked at him and smiled.

"Totally." I was about to give a step but he stopped me and I looked at him again. "What?"

"Promise."

"Are you serious? Fine, I promise. Come on now cub." We started walking this time though he just kept protesting.

"You promised!!"

"Fine, no more jokes." I said while still laughing. Finally we reached the table and I helped him get into his seat. Billy was bringing my plate to the table.

"Here, let me help you Billy." I said while taking Jake's plate from the kitchen and putting it in front of Jacob. Then I went back to the kitchen and brought the juice jar with Billy's plate. I sat in my chair in front of Jacob and looked at my breakfast. Billy had made for us some pancakes while at the side he served some bacon with toast and some muffins on the table.

"So Bella, where's that old man of yours? Did he have to work today?" Billy asked me while picking up the juice from the table. Usually Sunday's were supposed to be family day though right now I didn't know if Charlie really had work today or just left in order to avoid me questioning him about this morning's awkwardness, so I just nodded at Billy's question.

"Um, yeah. He had to go today. You know what they're saying…a big group of bears are still out there in the woods. He had to go search for them." I sarcastically said while I looked at Jake who had just snorted and was trying to hold his mocking laugh.

"And uh, did you wish him good luck? I mean, not everyone is lucky enough to find one of these 'big bears' people keep talking about."

"No, actually I told him that I had met one and that since he was an arrogant one he could just, you know, shoot him at sight." I saw Jake's expression go from an amusing face into one of shock. Then it changed again right before my eyes into one of realization when he finally comprehended the meaning behind my sentence. I started laughing a little bit after seeing his reactions while starting on my breakfast.

~ O ~

Tonight would be perfect. I had set myself the goal of making sure this night was unforgettable for her. I've been dreaming about this for so long. I brought Alice with me to help me pick the best present for her since she knew her very well by now. I had already asked Charlie's permission this morning, and he already gave me his consent. As soon as I had walked out the door this morning, I called the most expensive restaurant in the area and made reservations to make this night a memorable one.

"What do you think about this one?"

"Nope, too big." Alice said while looking around the store.

"Alice, we've been here for hours. Could we please hurry up a little bit?" I said getting already impatient. I mean, let's be honest here, I loved my sister but she could get in my nerves sometimes.

"You know, if you knew you would get this nervous for not knowing about her, you shouldn't have let her go into that mutts place. That way, at least I could have told you if she was fine. Besides, looking for the perfect gift always takes time." She said.

"I'm not nervous about her being with the 'mutt' as you call him, I just want to be by her side already. After so much time apart, you can't really expect me to like being far away from her." I was tired already. We had gone to so many stores by now. I didn't know woman could shop this much. "Honestly, I don't even know how Jasper can take this." She just laughed at my comment and kept looking as if I hadn't said anything at all till she finally stopped and smiled.

"This one!"

"Are you sure?" I looked at it. Now I knew why I brought Alice with me. She always knew just what to get when it came to gifts.

"Of course I am. Do you think I just came here to lose my time?" I grabbed the gift and walked right to the store cashier to pay for it. Alice walked at my side but I noticed that she was trying to keep something from me since when I tried to read her mind she started changing from people to people. She always does that when she wants to block her mind from me.

"Can I ask you something?" She asked while I was signing the credit card slip.

"Sure, ask."

"Aren't you a bit nervous?" I looked at her.

"About tonight? No. I've been dreaming about tonight for a very long time." I reassured her.

"No, I mean about her spending time with the mutt. I mean, if something were to happen to her, I wouldn't be able to see it since she is with the dog." I smiled at her. I knew this question would come sooner or later though I'm glad it came today. She was always so protective of Bella. She already considered Bella her sister so basically she was just trying to make sure that Bella would be alright even if she was with the werewolves.

"Nope. As long as you can't see her she is fine." After I paid the gift, we started to finally walk out the stores into Alice's car.

"How can you be so sure Edward? That day she fell down the cliff, I couldn't see how she survived. I can't see any dangerous problem she gets herself into when she is with those dogs." She said, emphasizing her blindness when Jacob was around Bella.

"Even though I don't like it Alice, Jacob can take care of her. Besides, this is only for the time being. I also needed this little distraction so that I could take care of everything for tonight."

I was sure Alice didn't like the answer I gave her. She just opened the doors to her car and started driving towards our house. I was pretty sure this was as quiet as I would ever hear my sister while she drove us to back home.

~ O ~

We were sitting in the sofa watching an old movie there were giving on TV. Billy had left to go watch the game in his room since we didn't want to watch it. Although I think that the one that didn't want to watch the game was me and Jacob was only being nice.

"I guess your back into cheesy romantic flicks now."

"Well 'Days of Thunder' is not considered a cheesy romantic flick like you call it Jake, this is more like an action movie. I thought you would like it since it has cars and everything. Besides is racing, you guys like that stuff."

"You can't really tell me we are watching this movie because of me."

"Hey, I happen to like this movie. And since this time I have the remote, you're just going to have to deal with it."

"Is that so? You know I can take the remote so easily off you…"

"You wouldn't dare!" I smiled at him sweetly knowing I just won this fight while Jake gave me his 'Are you kidding me' look.

"Well then, I'll ask nicely. Can you give me the remote?"

"Nope. Nice try though!" I smiled at my victory while he just turned back to watch the TV.

My thoughts went back to his injuries. They must have been quite deep for him not to be able to walk normally. I started to feel a bit guilty about them again.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure." He said while still watching the TV.

"What happened?" He looked at me.

"What? Are you not watching the movie after your making me watch it?"

"Stop trying to avoid the question Jake. I mean, what happened to you the day you got injured? Who did this to you?" He looked at me and I knew he just didn't want to tell me but I wanted to know the reasons. I kept looking at him so that he knew I was not joking about it. His eyes couldn't hide from me the inner battle he was having with himself on whether he could tell me or not. He turned away to watch the TV again.

"I disobeyed an order. I was supposed to alert the others when a vampire was on sight and I thought I could handle it all by myself." I looked at him. His reply upset me a little bit. His answer shouldn't have bothered me this much, but I've got to admit it did.

"What were you thinking Jake? Don't you know that vampires are dangerous? They're fast and strong and they-" He suddenly looked at me and didn't let me finish what I was saying.

"Bella don't insult us. A vampire could never compare to our strength and agility. The only reason why this happened is because I decided to take things in my own hands without counting on the others." He said a little pissed about my comment.

"Then why did you do it? If you knew it was so stupid to do so without the others around you, why did you do it?"

"Look, I just did. End of story. I don't want to talk about it anymore." He turned to look at the TV again while I kept looking at him after our little argument. I couldn't believe he would be this stupid.

"Your arrogance will get you killed one day Jake." I said while I turned to look at the TV also.

"I said, I don't want to talk about it Bella. Can I have the remote now?"

"No."

By now, we both stayed silent and decided that it was best to just watch the movie. It wasn't that interesting anymore for me, but at least it served to calm the atmosphere we had just created with our little argument. I was still pissed and not pleased at all with the result from it. He couldn't blame me for caring about him. I mean, he is my best friend after all. I didn't want to leave this argument were it was and I wanted to voice my thoughts out but we heard Jacob's window go up and then…

"What the…?"

"Jake?" We heard Embry called, or more likely almost scream, as if someone had kidnapped Jacob. I mean, not to be rude or anything but I really don't know how that could happen. Jacob was so heavy right now; I couldn't imagine anyone being able to 'kidnap' him.

"Over here!" He said. I was glad the guys just came over since all we were doing was watching the movie to avoid any type of confrontations right now. Embry came into the living room followed by Quil who for some reason looked to me as if he was hiding from something.

"What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be in your room resting?" Embry asked Jake while walking towards us. Jake shrugged him off. I knew something else was going on the second Jake turned around and kept watching TV as if Embry's questions had mattered nothing to him.

"Hey Bella, long time no see! Um what was it, since yesterday?" Quil was the first one to acknowledge me with a good laugh.

"Hey Quil." I greeted Quil. At that moment, Jacob turned from the TV and looked straight at Quil. There was some sort of strange tension going on between these two. For a moment I thought Jake would transform regardless his injuries to fight Quil, but he didn't.

"Yeah, hey Quil! How have you been since last night? Did you have a **good **morning?" He said while emphasizing on that last question.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I?"

"Oh jeez I don't know. Let's see, maybe because you had something important to do this morning and thought you could forget to wake up so you probably came up with the brilliant idea of turning on your alarm clock only to find this morning that yours wasn't the one that you turned on." Quil just stared at Jake and gulped. "Oh, I think you might want to thank Bella for being here. Because if she wasn't you'd be the one in bed instead of me." Jake said a little angry now though I could see it was just to scare him a little bit.

"What's going on here?" I asked wanting to know why Jake's mood had changed so quickly. He kept glaring at Quil while he answered my question.

"Well, dear Quil set my damn alarm clock for 7am this morning. Or were you under the assumption that I wouldn't find out?"

"Oh, come on Jake, calm down will you. I was just going to put it back off when Sam ordered us to go. I just, didn't have enough time to turn it off. Besides, you know how he gets when we disobey his orders."

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever!"

Jake just turned around and started to watch the movie again. Embry sat on the small couch at the side our sofa to watch the movie also, but I could see from his expression that he wasn't too much into the movie. He was thinking about something or more likely worrying about it.

"You know you'll be in trouble if he finds you here." Embry said while looking at Jake from the side couch. Jake just ignored him and kept looking at the TV.

"Why would he be in trouble?" I looked at Embry trying to look for an answer but he didn't say anything. He just kept glaring at Jake as if he was doing something wrong or, as Jake told me once, breaking some kind of wolf rule. I didn't have to wait too long for Quil answered in his behalf.

"Sam told him that he needed rest."

"Oh please, he may not be in his room but that doesn't mean he is not resting. Besides, this is just his living room, it's not like he is going to run wild on the forest or anything." I looked at Embry. "What difference does it make? It's still considered resting." Embry looked back at me.

"He is disobeying another order from Sam in case he hasn't told you yet, so I would suggest that you keep your opinions to yourself." I was surprised with Embry's response but didn't take it too hard.

"Don't blame Bella, Embry. She has nothing to do with this. It was my decision."

"Is that what you think? Do you think we don't know?" By this time Jake was losing it. I could feel him getting pissed at Embry. I was about to get up and start walking away from them since I'd already seeing how a fight between werewolves could end.

"I said to leave her out of this Embry. If Sam has anything to say to me, he can say it right here." Jake had started to raise his voice by now. I guess Embry noticed it too since he just nodded.

"Is that so?" We all turned towards the door to find out that this voice belonged to a not very happy but more likely pissed Sam Uley.

**Authors Note: **Finally after so much going on the end of chapter 4 is here. Well, I hope you liked this chapter. And please, as always, read and review it. Really, it doesn't take that much time and I really want to know your thoughts about everything that has to do with the story. Thank you to those who have taken the time to do so.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Twilight series characters. They all belong to Stephanie Meyer. L

Chapter 5

"I said to leave her out of this Embry. If Sam has anything to say to me, he can say it right here." Jake had started to raise his voice by now. I guess Embry noticed it too since he just nodded and sat in the arm chair.

"Is that so?" We all turned towards the door to find out that this voice belonged to a not very happy but more likely pissed Sam Uley. As I looked back at Jake, I could see that he was getting pissed but that wasn't the only thing I noticed. In his eyes I saw another emotion, one I couldn't quite describe. I could tell there was something different in this kind of anger that he was showing towards Sam, but I couldn't put my finger in what it was. A bit frightful I got up from the sofa to greet Sam and try to avoid any type of fight between them.

"Hi Sam. How've you've been?" He looked at me and just nodded.

"Hey."

"Um, is Emily with you?" I tried to look over Sam but he was so big I couldn't see anything past him. Then Emily came from around Sam as he calmed himself after looking at her. She greeted me with a strange smile on her face.

"Hey Bella. It's quite surprising to see you here." Then she looked at Jacob with a disapproving motherly face. "You're supposed to be resting in your room."

"I got bored." Jake said while looking at Emily.

"Mmph, are you sure that's the only reason?" She asked him giving him this know-it-all smile. Jake rolled his eyes at her comment and looked away to the TV again ignoring her.

"Are you going to change my bandages or did you just come to talk?" He said while still looking away. This time it was Emily the one who decided to ignore his question and continue talking to the rest of us.

"You guys are watching a movie?

"Uh well Embry and I actually just got here. And Paul stayed. He said he had something to do. But **they** are watching Days of Thunder." Quil was the one to answer her question a little too happy if you ask me. I looked back at Jake who was still looking away from Emily. 'Is that blush on his face?'

"Oh, I see." She said in a too sweetly voice. "I didn't know you were into cars Bella." I looked back at her.

"I'm not. We were just watching it because there is nothing else on TV besides the game."

"Right. Um, can you help me get the bandages for Jacob? I left them in the car."

"Sure." I started walking towards the door followed by her until we reached her truck. It was a black pickup truck kind of like mine but a newer version of it. She reached at the back of the truck a medicine case which I assume she had to take everywhere knowing what kind of trouble these werewolves got into after seeing Jake's injuries. She opened the case and got out three rolls of bandages and a scissor.

"Here, hold these please." I just nodded while I watch her close the case and put it in the back of her truck again. I was about to go back to the house when she put her hand in my arm and stopped me.

"Wait!" I turned around again and looked at her. "There is a reason why I asked you to come with me Bella besides helping me with the medical stuff."

"Okay, what is it?" She hesitated a little bit as if she wasn't sure of what to say. Then she looked at me with a determined look on her eyes.

"I know I shouldn't be telling you this, because is not in my place to say. But I think you should know and please don't take it the wrong way." I just nodded and waited for her to continue.

"I know that by now you should know about Jake's feelings for you. It doesn't take a scientist to know. I mean, he's so bad at trying to hide them, there's just no way that they can be missed. So please don't hurt him. He's a nice guy. And though I know that hurting him is not your intention, he is too arrogant to even let you know when you are doing so." I was a little shocked after hearing what she had to say to me. Even if I knew about Jake's feelings towards me, I had been more than clear enough with him when I told him that he was my best friend. But even so, I felt a bit defensive after Emily's words. I could feel something new stirring inside of me after hearing them. I know she had told me not to take it the wrong way, but her words did bother me a lot.

"You're right. It's not in your place to say anything. Jake knows he is my best friend. I'm pretty sure if there's any chance I could hurt him in any way, he would let me know right away."

"Trust me, he won't. But like I said, don't take this the wrong way. I just wanted to let you know. Let's head back now. I have to re-bandage that beast friend of yours." She smiled while heading over to the door. I followed her towards the door still thinking about what she had just said to me.

As I stopped at the door, I watched Jacob being helped by Embry and Quil get back to his room. I stared at him carefully thinking if what Emily had just told me could be true. 'Would he really hide his pain from me if I were to be hurting him?'

"You okay?" I looked to my left to find Sam looking at me.

"Yeah. Why?"

"You were spacing out."

"I was just thinking."

"Bella-" I turned after Emily's shout from Jake's room. "What are you doing? Bring me those bandages so that I can clean Jacob's wounds."

"Coming." I turned from Sam and headed over to Jake's room. Quil and Embry were just putting Jacob down on his bed when I walked in.

"Careful guys. You don't want to hurt him anymore than he already is."

"Yeah well, we don't know about that, right Embry?" Quil sarcastically said while helping Jacob sit in his bed. Jake just glared at him and waited for Emily to start cleaning his injuries.

"You know Quil, I would suggest you do what Emily says if you wish to be alive to celebrate your birthday."

"What are you going to do? Fight me… in your state?" We all started laughing at Quil's little joke while Jake just glared at him. But even after teasing Jake, he started walking away from his bed maybe to prevent any type of further damage. Quil always had a way of making fun of any situation especially if it involved making fun of a family member.

"Bella will you please give me the bandages?"

"Yeah sure, here." I watched as Emily slowly took Jake's arm and started taking off the old bandage to put him the new one. I tried to look away through the window to avoid seeing any type of blood residues in his bandages or worst, his wound at fresh sight since it has always been a weakness for me. I have never been able to stand the sight of it.

"Hey Bella, you are coming to my birthday, right?" I turned from the window to look at Quil.

"What?" I didn't hear half of what he said since I was more focused on trying to look away from Jake's injuries.

"My birthday is coming up. Well is not near yet, but its two weeks before school starts. We are staying over the weekend camping near the beach. You are coming, right?" I could notice Quil's excitement over his birthday.

"Um, well…"

"Oh come on! You can't miss it Bella. It's going to be great. It's the end of the summer, and we'll probably go surfing, tell some scary movies at night and… oh can't forget to mention the bonfire with its marshmallows and the chocolate bars. And there's going to be many people from our school who are just dying to meet you."

"Um, wait! You guys talk to your schoolmates about me?"

"Well, you are our friend, even if you decide to love leeches." I nodded at Quil's way of trying to get me to attend his birthday.

"Great Quil, that's… very welcoming." I said while Embry and Sam started to laugh a bit. Even Jacob was trying to hold his laugh since Emily was bandaging his torso by now.

"Yeah Quil! I'm actually impressed with your speech skills man. Oh, by the way, nice way of extending an invitation. I'm sure Bella can't wait for your birthday to come." Embry sarcastically said. By now, all of us started laughing at Quil's shocked face after inviting me to his birthday. I looked at the time on Jake's clock at his night table and it read 4:30pm.

"Is that clock right?"

"Yeah, why would it be wrong?" Jake answered me.

"If that's the real time, I have to leave. I have to-" I looked at Jacob and remembered what Emily had said to me when we went looking for the bandages. So instead of telling him about my plans tonight with Edward, I just told him the necessary. "um, I have this thing tonight. I can't miss it."

"Okay then. Thanks for coming I guess." Jake said. I started saying my goodbye's when Quil interrupted me.

"Well but you are coming to my birthday, right?"

"Quil…" Jake shot him a warning look. I could see the meaning behind his eyes as if to stop Quil from making me feel that I was obligated to go. But there was something different this time in his eyes. I couldn't put my finger into what was wrong or most likely different but I knew something had changed between us and I was going to find out what.

"Sure. Count me in. Is not every day you turn seventeen, right… Um, where exactly is it?"

"It's a camping area here in the reservation near La Push. Bring your friends if you want. Well, the ones that can actually come please." I smiled at him and nodded.

"Sure sure. I'll see you guys later." With that, I finish saying my goodbyes and headed for my car to go home. I started wondering what Edward had planned for this evening again. Usually when he invited me to dinner I knew it was always a one dish kind of night since he couldn't eat any of our food. So there was something really rare about tonight and I was about to find out in a couple of hours.

~ O ~

"How are his injuries looking Emily?"

"They're a lot better actually. I guess he is healing a lot faster than a normal person thanks to his werewolf blood."

"When do you think he'll be able to start walking normal again without help?"

"Well, if he continues improving this fast, I think he'll be able to start running again by next weekend." I heard Emily tell Sam who was outside my door trying to hide this conversation from me. Too bad I could still hear their conversation through my door.

Soon after Bella left, the guys followed after except for Sam. He stayed behind to wait for Emily to finish changing my bandages although I would have preferred if the guys would have stayed and he was the one that left. After hearing Emily's words, I felt a lot better since being in bed was sufferable enough for me.

'I can't wait for the weekend.' I thought. The more free time I had on my hands right now, the more dangerous it was for me. I knew that my decision of forgetting about her was going to be harder to achieve than it seemed. I was fighting a constant battle, one where I was miserably struggling to survive. Bella's visit this morning did not make anything easier. Her visit this morning only meant one thing: she still cared.

'Great! Now I have enough thoughts of her to go all day. And to think she's coming to Quil's birthday. Ugh, I need to get out of here!' I heard my door open and look to see my father on his chair. He had in his hand a cup of orange juice and a sandwich in his lap.

"Here, help me with this will you Emily." He gave Emily the sandwich and the cup of juice he had prepared for me. "How are you feeling son?"

"Better. Thanks." I said to Emily after she gave me the sandwich. She placed the cup of juice in my night table to my left.

"Well, I guess this is all. We'll be going now. But before we leave,-" as she said this, she gave me a motherly look which meant that if I didn't follow her instruction I would be in serious trouble "-make sure you get plenty of rest and stay out of trouble."

I smiled at her comment. "Yeah, don't worry. I doubt I could go anywhere right now."

"That hasn't stopped you before, has it?" She really was like a mother.

"Thanks Emily. I'll see you guys around." I nodded at Sam while they were leaving. I looked at my father. He was thoughtfully looking outside my window. I started to worry. The only time I had seen that face was years ago when my mother died. He didn't know how to break the news to me. So he thought carefully before telling me that mom had died. So by now I knew exactly what was happening. He knew something, but was too afraid of saying it to me. He was going to babble a little bit and then he would try to beat around the bush until he could finally find a way of telling me what he needed to say.

"What's wrong?"

"Hmph. Sam is really lucky to have found Emily, you know… She is a great woman."

"Yeah…lucky indeed. Why don't you just tell me what you want so say so that I can go back into eating my sandwich dad?" The moment he looked at me I knew that something was definitely wrong here. I was preparing myself for the worst, but he just smiled and ignored my question.

"Yeah, so Bella and you are into talking terms again. Did she like the movie?"

"She didn't say." I looked at him suspiciously. "Father, if you have something to say, you can just say it. I'm sure I can handle it." He looked at me and took a deep breath.

"I talked to Charlie this morning. Wanted to see if he could make it to the game but seems he couldn't." He started moving towards me. "He was telling me about Edward's comeback." I looked away from him and close my hands to try and hide what I was really feeling. He didn't deserve her. "How Bella and him where back together since he came back from Italy. Seems she is doing great now, isn't she?"

"Yeah, she's a lot better now." I said almost to myself.

"Oh well, I'll be in the living room. If you need anything, you know just shout." With that he went straight to the living room and closed the door after getting out.

~ O ~

On my way back from Jake's house, I received a phone call from Edward telling me to dress nice for today. I didn't know what Edward had planned for tonight but as soon as I had reached home I took a shower and prepared myself for dinner. After countless of tries, I ended up wearing a purple sleeveless dress that reached just above my knee. I didn't feel comfortable with it, but I had no other choice since Edward insisted on me wearing something nice for our so called date.

"Well you're looking nice." I looked to my window where Edward had just appeared wearing a dark blue cotton shirt with his sleeves up to his elbows and dressy black pants. He smiled and started walking towards me.

"Yeah well, don't get too used to it. I'm only wearing this dress because you wanted me to look good for our so called date. And by the way, have you decided on letting me know where we're going?"

"Nope. It's still a surprise love." I could feel his cold hands circling my torso. I look at him and smiled as I watched him bent down to give me a quick kiss.

"Ugh, you know I hate surprises."

"Don't worry, you'll find out soon enough won't you." He said as he put his hand in my lower back and started pushing me towards the door so that we could go. I laughed a bit but nevertheless I let him guide me to his car.

After an hour or so in the road we finally reached Port Angeles where Edward parked his car in the parking lot of a French restaurant called C'est Si Bon. I could see why Edward warned me about my clothing tonight. Even with the casual dress I had on I felt a little under dressed for such a restaurant. Edward got out of the car and opened my door in no time. I got out of the car and he took my hand to lead the way. Inside of the restaurant, the waiter seated us in a very romantic table for two. There was some live classical music playing in the corner of the restaurant and two candles in the middle of our round table. As I looked at the menu, I couldn't decide what I wanted. I looked at Edward and noticed that he was enjoying my face of frustration at trying to decide what I would eat.

"I'm glad you find it amusing that I can't decide what to eat." He laughed at my comment.

"I'm pretty sure it can't be as hard as you are trying to make it."

"Well, if you are that confident, you can choose for me."

"Fine, I already know what you would like in here."

"Oh, really?" I was going to ask him what he would order me but the waiter came to take our order.

"Would you like anything to drink?" I looked at the waiter to order my soda but Edward interrupted me.

"A bottle of the finest wine you have here please. And since I am the one ordering for you, -" he looked at the menu and then at the waiter "-she'll have a Medailon D'Agneau Balsamico. Thank you." He said while closing the menu and giving it back to the waiter. He looked back at me.

"See, that wasn't so hard to do."

"And what did you just ordered me?"

"I should let it be a surprise since I know how much you like them."

"You would torture me until dinner arrives?" I gave him my best sad look.

"No, I could never be this mean with you. I ordered you lamb tenderloins. You're going to like it." I smiled at him.

"Are you preparing me for when you turn me into a vampire? You know I'll probably have lambs for dinner. The only difference would be that, when you do turn me, I'll be eating them uncooked." He laughed at my comment and as always ignored my pleading of becoming like him.

"I shall let you know that you are closer than when I met you, though not close enough to convince me yet of turning you."

"You are so mean."

"How was your visit to Jacob's house?" I froze at his question. My mind flew immediately to this morning when I was talking to Jake in his room and our eyes met before Billy interrupted us. I looked away from Edward's gaze and was thankful that he couldn't read my thoughts.

"He's pretty much beaten up. Victoria left him like a mummy if you ask me." He laughed. The waiter came in with a bottle of wine. He filled two cups of wine and put it in front of us before putting the bottle into a small bucket full of ice. I looked at Edward suspiciously.

"So, what exactly am I toasting for?" I sarcastically said while taking the wine glass up. Edward was still smiling. Then suddenly I watched as he took a small black box and put it in the middle of the table. I stared at it though I didn't have to open it to know what it was.

"Will you marry me Bella?" It was as if my mind wasn't processing what was happening before my eyes. I looked at him and smiled. I took the box and opened it. Inside the small little box was the most beautiful ring I had ever seen. It had a big diamond in the middle with two smaller diamonds at each side of the middle diamond. It was without any doubt beautiful. I took the ring out of the box and put it in my finger. It fitted perfectly. I was still so nervous that I just laughed when I looked at him to answer his question.

"Yes, I will." After my answer, he took my hand and kissed it.

"I love you."

"I love you too."

The rest of the evening was spent calmed and peacefully. But even with the excitement of my own engagement tonight, I couldn't get the thought of Jacob out of my mind. I didn't want to hurt him and if what Emily said was correct, he wouldn't let me know when I was doing it so. I knew the news of my engagement would soon travel fast, especially since this is a small little town, but I also knew what I had to do. 'Yes, I need to find a way of telling him myself before he finds out through someone else. And I have to tell him soon. I hope nothing changes between us.'

**Authors Note**: Well guys, what do you think? Please review it. It doesn't take that long to do so and I would really like to know what you think of it.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Twilight series characters. They all belong to Stephanie Meyer. L

**Quick note**: I know some of you didn't like the ending of the last chapter, but trust me that scene has to be there for later. Other than that, I want to thank the people that have reviewed this story. It really helps to know your thoughts on it. And now, we can move on with the chapter.

Chapter 6

I knew today wasn't going to be a good day. Since this morning I had a presumption that today was definitely going to be a bad day. A lightning storm disturbed my sleep at exactly 3:33 in the morning. It was still dark outside and the only thing I could see down my window was thunder. I kept watching the purring rain outside every time a lightning strike illuminated the sky and thought of how much this storm described how I was feeling inside. I started to think about her again, hoping that she wasn't scared at all with this storm, wanting to be there at her side. I remember my father had told me she was having nightmares a little while back. I started to wonder if she was having as much difficulty as me in finding sleep tonight. After noticing where this storm was taking my thoughts, I tried to go back to sleep, but my efforts where all in vain. I kept fighting until finally after minutes had passed, maybe hours, I found myself asleep again. That was the moment I had officially declared this a disastrous day.

Emily had been wrong in her prediction of me being in bed for a week for it was Wednesday already and I was already running around with the pack. Since my fight with Victoria, Sam was a bit more overprotective of all of us. He started placing us in pairs saying he didn't wanted what happened to me repeat itself. So here I was running around the wild rainy forest with Embry to my right as my partner looking for Victoria or any other vampire that dared cross our paths today. But even sniffing around for these vampires couldn't take away how I was feeling right now.

'Jake! To your left, do you smell it?' Embry asked a bit startled. I sniffed the air to see if I could catch a scent and it was there. It was faint, but it definitely was there.

'Jake, confirm you also smell one.' Sam said wanting to know if it was true. He was more to the west side of Forks searching for vampires along with Paul. There was talk in town about people seeing the form of a footstep a little bit bigger than the usual human footstep around that part of the forest. Lately there had been an increase in the number of vampires visiting us from different places but the ones that were stepping into our lands were unskilled or just lack the experience. They had been so easily for us to kill that I started to wonder what exactly their real motive here was.

'Yeah. I'm positive we have one. The smell is faint, but there's definitely one here.'

'Quil, Jared-'

'We're on our way.' Quil said without waiting for Sam's orders.

'Embry, don't go after him till we are near. That goes for you too Jacob.'

'Got it.' Embry said while I just nodded.

'Jake?' Sam said in a commanding voice.

'I got it.' I said a little bothered that he was commanding me at all. I don't know what it was, but lately I had started developing this impulsive feeling of wanting to challenge Sam even if he was the one in command. Still, the slightest comment coming from him bothered me. I felt as if I wanted to rebel against him even if he was the "alpha dog". I tried to suppress my feelings of anger deep inside to avoid any of the pack finding them out.

~ O ~

It was almost Friday and I still had not been able to tell Jake the news. I didn't know how he would react to the fact that I was engaged to a vampire so I tried to push over that conversation as far away as possible.

"Bella, what do you think of this one?" Alice asked me. Since last Friday Alice had been really excited about Edward and me getting married, although I think it was more the fact that she wanted to plan our wedding. It was so easy to get tired from all of this, especially knowing how Alice was with anything that involved the coordination of events. A week hadn't passed by since Edward and I had gotten engaged and she had already showed me more than a hundred invitation designs she thought were best suited as our wedding invitations. Right now, she was making me see dresses from different types of bridal magazines.

I smiled tiredly and nodded. "Looks good, yeah." She cut the page from the wedding dress she liked and put it into the binder along with the rest of the pictures of wedding dresses that she had liked.

All in all, I was pretty tired of watching dresses and invitations and cups and whatever else that had to do with the wedding. Didn't she get it? I was more of a casual person. I hated dressing up for events, never really cared for parties or going out into dates, and I was totally inexperienced in trying to decide a dress style that could fit as my own wedding dress. I was the worst person who anyone could ask for dress advice. If it was for me, I would just walk to the altar with a normal white basic wedding dress and some comfortable shoes and just get married. I mean, it was just a dress to use it for one night so I really don't see what the big deal in choosing a stupid dress was. I needed some air, and fast.

"You know what Alice? Why don't you see these magazines, pick the best dresses you like for me, and I'll just see the binder after you're satisfied that you've chosen the very best there is out there?" I looked at her and said calmly hoping that she would understand my need for getting out of the house. We had been in my room since this morning looking at dresses and it was almost noon.

"Well Bella, you're the one that will wear it. So I think that you should choose with me the dress so that I can tell the designer to make it for you."

"Well, I will chose the dress… after you've approve of it." I smiled a little and tried to see if she was going to go for my bait but after seeing this was going nowhere, I insisted a little more so that she couldn't refuse my plea of getting out of here. "Can this wait for later then? I really have to go."

"Well, what could be more important than your own wedding, Bella? Edward wants this wedding to be as fast as possible. I thought that you wanted the same."

"I do. Um, don't get me wrong." I looked away from her as I tried to explain my need of getting out but after she reminded me about Edward wanting the wedding to be fast, I knew it would take one of my 'master of invention's excuse' to pull my escape out. I looked at her again and said "But I uh… I had asked Jessica if she could come with me to pick a small surprise present for Edward. And I think she might be waiting for me to go pick her up now. But I totally will see the binder when I get back and we can sit and watch the dresses and I'll pick one. How about that, is it okay?"

"Sure, if that's the way you want it."

"Okay cool." As soon as I heard her approve of my little excuse I got up from my room's floor, pick up my keys and my wallet and got out of my room before she could say anything else. I took my truck and started driving away.

Didn't really know where I was going, I just knew I had to get away. After a couple of minutes, my truck had "unconsciously" taken me to Jake's house. I had parked my truck in front of his house not exactly knowing what I was expecting to accomplish from this visit. I just felt this sudden need of seeing him. Whenever I had these stressful days, he was always good at listening to me. Usually he ended up understanding my problems and calming me. It was always good to see him. Maybe that is why my first thought since I was on the road was to go see Jake. As I looked far away into the forest I saw Jake walking back with just some short jeans and tennis shoes. I had seen him like that before many times, but for some reason today it felt different. I could feel a little flush coming to my face which I didn't expected at all. It was these moments where I was grateful for Forks being a rainy place, although that really didn't help my predicament too much right now. As he was walking back, from what I assumed to be hunting, he looked up and noticed my truck in front of his house. It was still pouring rain so I waited for him to be a little closer so that I could step out of my truck and run to his house.

~ O ~

The hunt was a success after all. While Sam and Paul tried to get the bloodsucker from the west, he ended up running into the rest of us and we finished our job in less than a minute. They were getting easier to kill. For some reason these vampires had little to nonexistent experience whatsoever in handling werewolves. Though it didn't matter how easy it had become, a kill was a kill and the less of these bloodsuckers on this earth the better. As I was walking back, I saw Bella's truck in front of my house. To say I was a little surprised is an understatement, but I was happy to see her there. She got out of her truck and started running towards the house. I started running towards my house also, got in through my room's window and open the front door for her.

"Hey Bella, what's up?" As soon as I saw her face, I knew something was bothering her.

"Um, not much. Can I come in?"

"Yeah, let me get you a towel." I let her in and while she stayed at the door, I went to fetch a towel for her. She was soaking wet as her teal tank silhouetted her body perfectly along with her wet jeans which actually looked more like skinny jeans right now. I took the chance to put a shirt on and went and went back to her with the towel and my high school leather jacket on my hand. "Here, wouldn't want you to get sick now would we."

"Yeah, thanks!" She said while gave her the towel and put my jacket around her shoulders.

"So, what brings you here?"

"Can I not visit my friend anymore?" After her small comeback question, I knew there was something definitely going on here. I stared at her and waited for her to answer my question but she just turned around. She looked around the living room as if she had never been into my house before. She was looking at some pictures on the wall, some that where on the table and then she stopped right in front of the fireplace. "Is that you in this picture?" She asked while pointing at a picture that was on top of it. It was a picture of Quil, Embry and I on a small baseball league uniform.

"Yeah. We used to play baseball when we were little. But then we all stopped when we reached ten. "

"Were you good at it?"

"Um, we were descent I guess."

"Why'd you stopped?" I shrugged.

"I guess, we grew out of it. I mean, I like it but I think I like to watch it better than to play it."

It was a bit later than noon right now and even after our hunt this morning I was a bit hungry again. It was one of the things about being a werewolf, I felt hungry all the time. I could eat anything and still be hungry in a couple of hours.

"Do you want anything to eat?" I offered Bella since knowing her as I do, she probably hadn't eaten yet. She looked at me a little confused.

"Didn't you just come back from hunting?"

"Yeah, so?"

"Did you not find any vampires to kill today?"

"Yeah, we killed one. It was actually easier today to kill this one. I'd say that race it's getting stupider with time." She laughed a bit.

"And you're still hungry…?"

"Hey! We do a lot of exercise when we kill a vampire. Plus all the energy it takes to transform."

"Oh sure. Forgive me, I forgot. Let me write that one down on the excuse book." She said sarcastically. I loved it when she was in this mood. It was one of her things that had bewitched me from the start. But I had to be careful now. Although I love when she is like this, it still hurts to know that she's not mine.

"Are you hungry or not?"

"Depends on what you have in mind. Are you thinking on cooking for me?" She looked at me and gave me a flirty smile.

"Well I had in mind cooking you for dinner. Would you like that?" I laughed at her stunned face but when I looked into her eyes I knew there was something different there. Her silent took me by surprise. Usually my comment would lead to her telling me I was ruining this moment. I tried to search deeper but it was gone as fast as it had come. "I'm kidding Bella."

"Yeah, I know." She looked at me again after I reminded her that I was only joking.

"Well, do you want me to cook for you?" I said as I smiled at her. 'I don't even know if she actually notices how drawn I am to her when she is in this playing mode.'

"What are you cooking?"

She saw my devilish smile and rapidly added "That's not me."

"How would you like spaghettis from Chef Black? I even have my own sauce."

"I didn't know you could cook."

"Baby, there are a lot of things you don't know about me." There it was again, that look of surprise on her face only this time I chose to ignore it. "Come on."

She followed me into the kitchen. I started taking out one pot from the top counter and gave it to her. "Here, fill this with water all the way to half the pot."

"Sure Chef!" She nodded and turned around to the sink. She started filling the pot while I searched for the tomato sauce on the fridge and some other ingredients to make the sauce. I took another pot out while Bella started to put hers on the stove.

"The spaghetti box is over there." She opened the right counter and took out a box of spaghetti. When the water started boiling, she took out the spaghettis and set them on the pot. I on the other hand, started mixing the ingredients for the sauce in the left part of the stove while she just worked on the right side of me.

"So what exactly is your secret ingredient?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, all the Chefs usually have a secret ingredient. It's like their signature on foods."

"Well if I actually tell you what my secret ingredient is, then I would spoil my signature, wouldn't I?" She gave me the 'are you kidding look' which just made me chuckle. "Besides I kind of like the advantage I have here over you." I smiled at her.

"What advantage? You could never have an advantage over me."

"Well, right now I am the Chef and you are just an apprentice. That is a major advantage."

"Oh, please… who doesn't know how to make spaghettis?"

"No, no! I happen to have a signature, remember?"

"For the sauce?"

"Hey, a signature is a signature. Apprentices can't compete against already established Chefs without a signature."

"Whatever wolf boy." I started laughing when she took a noodle out of the pot and threw it at me. I dodge the noodle in time for it to hit the fridge at my back.

"Hey, don't be a sour loser."

"Then don't laugh at me."

"Can't I enjoy my victory?" I asked still laughing and I was met with another one of the noodles which hit me this time in my face. "You'll pay for that!" Now she was the one that was laughing. She saw the evil look in my eye and started running towards the living room while I run after her. I could hear her mocking laugh while she ran across the sofa to keep some distance between her and me.

"Don't! What are you going to do?" She said while giggling and laughing at me.

"I'll teach you what happens when you mess with me." She laughed again while I tried to go for her. She circled the sofa again and again until I just jumped over it and took her by the waist. Her back was against me while she was trying to fight her way out of my hands.

"Cheater! You're such a cheater!" She said while still laughing and struggling against my strong arms.

"Why? Again trying to be a sour loser?" I said in her ear. I felt the ways her muscles tense under my grasp but I didn't give it too much importance. She kept struggling against me probably not knowing what this was doing to me. Her fidgeting was making me step back little by little. I was still holding her on my arms when, thanks to her, I tripped with the corner of the coffee table and started falling backwards.

"Ouch!" We both said at the same time I landed on the floor and since she was still wrapped in my arms, she landed on top of me. We both started to laugh ad she turned around and stared at me.

"Are you okay?" She asked me between laughs.

"I don't think I've had this much fun since a long time ago." She stared at me smiling and out of breath. Then I suddenly saw the way her eyes moved from my eyes to my lips and then came back to linger on my eyes again. This time I couldn't ignore what was happening. So many things ran through my head so fast. From the moment I've met her, to the moment we were working on the bikes, to the almost kiss on her kitchen. Everything came back in small flashbacks that ended up pointing out where we stood right now. I've been waiting so long to see that look on her face and yet I knew it wasn't right. She had told me a lot of times that we were just friends, and I had promised myself that I would just accept that and move on, and this wasn't exactly moving on. But then, why was she looking at me that way?

"Um, your sauce must be ready." She said as she looked away quickly to the stove. I just nodded but kept looking at her. I was waiting for her to look back but she didn't which only meant that she was probably embarrassed or really uncomfortable. Finally, I looked at the stove and tried to pretend that I was really worried about my sauce.

"Right! I should go check it out. It must be done by now." I told her. She stood up and started to walk over to the stove and turned it off. I stood up and kept looking at her. The scene that greeted me was one that I know I will always remember. She was taking the pot and taking the water out from the spaghettis, but what made it so unforgettable for me was the fact that I had pictured exactly this scene in one of my dreams. It was me imagining a future together where we belong to each other and she would move around our house so smoothly making everything fit in my perfect world.

"Well, are you going to put your signature, Chef?" I smiled at her comment while I took myself out of my thought and started walking towards the kitchen.

"Sure. Watch and learn apprentice." I stir up the contents on my pot and then had a taste of the sauce to make sure it tasted good.

"Mmmm, you wanna taste?" She nodded. I gave her a spoon of sauce to try.

"Wow Jake, you actually cook well."

"I told you I was a good Chef." I walked to the table and set down my plate at the head of the table. "Do you want something to drink?" I asked her while she put her plate next to mine.

"What do you have?"

"Juice, soda, water… just tell me what you want and I'll let you know if I have it." I told her while taking two glasses out of the kitchen cabinet and filling them with ice.

"Okay then I'll have a Martini." I was taken aback with her answer as I looked at her bewildered for I could not believe what she had asked for.

"I'm sorry, a what?" Then she smiled and started to laugh at my face.

"Well, you said just to tell you what I wanted so I am only letting you know what I want." I looked at her and smiled. After hearing that she was back into making her usual quick remarks, I knew we were fine. 'Okay so she wants be a tease again.' I had no problem playing this little game of hers. It was risky, but I loved it.

"Um, I'm going to need your ID young lady…" She laughed again.

"Don't I look old enough?" I looked at her in a teasing way.

"Well, you could have fooled someone else. Maybe you could have fooled a bloodsucker, since they don't know what aging means. But you could never fool me, after all your physique would have given you away.

"We are not having the age argument again." I nodded at her.

"Wow Bells, who would have thought the daughter of Chief Swan was such a drinker." I loved teasing her.

She rolled her eyes at my last comment. "Just bring me some juice."

"What kind?"

"I don't know. Just bring me whichever one you are having." I served the two glasses with tropical punch juice and placed them both at the table. I watched her carefully as we ate. There was something that was bothering me since I saw her truck in front of my house after I came back from hunting. And I knew exactly what it was. She was hiding something from me. Even after a great time spent with her today, I could tell that she was trying to avoid another type of confrontation with me. I could sense it. The only problem was that I feared the motive of this confrontation. We were almost ending our food when she looked at me confused.

"What?" She asked after looking at my concerned face.

"Are you going to tell me the real reason why you came here?" I slowly asked her. 'I need to know.' I thought as she looked at me. There was some sort of hidden sadness in her stare which help me perceive that whatever she was going to say was not good. She looked away from me and she breathed in a couple of times as if she didn't know how to tell me. When she finally found the courage to say what she needed to say, she looked at me again.

"Jake-" I kept starring at her and trying to get ready for what she was about to say. Her silence was of no great comfort either. But no matter how much I tried, there was nothing that could have helped me prepare for what she was about so say.

"There's no easy way for me to say this to you. So I'm just going to say it and hope that you'll understand." She breathed in again and looked at me. "I'm getting married." Silence filled the room again. I was trying to concentrate on the words she had just said but they weren't sinking in. "Edward asked me on Friday and I said yes." She kept going, yet I was still on the 'getting married' part. I looked away to hide all the emotions that I was feeling right now. I don't know if she had noticed but she seemed to have known me well enough to read most of my emotions by just looking at my eyes. 'She must be joking. That's got to be it. Either she is making a joke or this is not happening. This cannot be happening!' I stood up from the table and walked towards the living room. I needed some space. I had to get her out of here so that I could think about this but she followed me to the living room which right now wasn't a great idea.

"I don't want anything to change between us Jake. You know-" She tried to say quickly but I didn't let her finish.

"Bella, get out." I tried to sound calm but my voice came out a different way.

"Jake-" This time I turned around to face her so that she could understand why she needed to get out. I was slowly getting out of control. I could feel it slipping away from me little by little.

"Out!" I said a little loudly than before. Hurting her was always the last thing on my mind. I hated doing so, but she had to leave. I saw her pick up her things quickly. A couple of tears ran down her face before she walked out of the door. I heard when she had started driving away and waited a couple of minutes to get out of the house and let my anger consume me into my transformation. I knew today wasn't going to be a good day. Since this morning I had a presumption that today was definitely going to be a bad day. I needed to get out.

**Authors Note: **End of chapter 6. So, what do you guys think? I know some of you want less Edward more Jacob, and believe me is finally coming soon. Please review the story, tell me what you think about it and I'll see you on the next chapter.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Twilight series characters or the song used in this chapter. The characters all belong to Stephanie Meyer and the song belongs to Chris Daughtry.

Chapter 7

I don't know what had induced me in the first place that going to his house would have been the remedy I needed for my already screwed up day. If my day had started bad, it had just gotten worst. First, Alice was already getting on my nerves with the whole wedding thing. A week hadn't even passed by since I'd gotten engaged and I already doubted my decision of allowing them to make a wedding. And second, Jake was officially pissed with me. But it wasn't just pissed it was more like angry thought I don't know why. He should've known that there was a possibility of me marrying Edward and it bothered me that he was my best friend and yet he didn't understand me as good as I thought he would. I mean, I knew the news were going to be hard on him, but I thought he would be able to handle them since he knows how I feel.

When I opened the door of my truck, tears were still rolling down my cheek. I threw my things on the passenger side and started up my truck. I started driving away feeling a little incomplete. We've had fights before, but not like this one. It usually took us a couple of hours max and then we were alright again. Our worst fight had ended up with him making me a promise of not hurting me again. But this one was different. As I was getting farther away from his house, I saw him through my rear-view mirror. He was running towards the forest and then transformed just seconds before disappearing in the forest. I stopped my truck in the side of the road. More tears fell out of my eyes as I realized what was happening. Emily had been right when she told me that I was unconsciously hurting him. All that he went through from helping me reconstruct those bikes to the moment he begged me to stay, everything that had transpired from the moment Edward left me he'd been there for me not just because he was my friend but because he truly loved me in a non-friendly way. He had used that pretense of being my friend to make sure that I stayed around him, but in fact I was hurting him like Emily said I would. But the strange thing was that coming here and seeing him today left a mysterious feeling in my heart.

The more time I spend with Jake, the more I realized that I did love him like he always said. I don't know what it was, but there's something about Jacob that just mesmerized me. It wasn't the same love I felt for Edward, but I did love him in a different way. Everything had started as me needing him to forget Edward, but it was different now. Somehow this need had escalated into something more without me even noticing it. This new longing I had for him made me realize that I've always needed him and not just to forget, but to live. But, was it strong enough to question my decisions?

I needed to talk to talk this out with someone but I had to make sure that whoever it was didn't know either of them well. 'So that puts Emily and Alice out. Rosalie would probably ignore me besides the fact that she wouldn't give me any constructive advice that could help me out. Jessica would just totally blow the entire situation way out of proportion. Angela is pretty good with listening. Maybe she can help me out with this.' I took out my cell and went through my contacts till I saw her name and push the call button.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Angela. Um, how is it going?"

"Bella?"

"Yeah, hi!"

"Oh my God! You have disappeared. I haven't seeing or heard from you since school was out a couple of weeks ago."

"Yeah, well I've been a little busy since school was out and everything."

"So I've heard. Jessica told us that she saw Edward back at Port Angeles with Alice so I guess you do have a reason for disappearing."

"Yeah. Um, since we are talking about that, what are you doing now? Are you busy?"

"Well Eric went out to surf with Mike. He said and I quote 'This is the beginning to a perfect summer.' So I guess I'm not busy at all. Why? What do you have in mind?" I laughed a little bit thinking about Eric and surfing. The last time we watched them surfing, he had fallen out badly enough of his surfing board and the wave wasn't even formed yet.

"I was thinking about going to your place. I need some advice on something and I thought you could help me out. But please don't mention it to Jessica. I'll explain later."

"Sure. I'll see you when you get here."

"Okay, bye!"

She hanged up the phone and I started driving towards Angela's house. Perhaps my day could still be saved, at least the last part of it.

~ O ~

The sky could easily pass as descriptive pictures of the way my heart was feeling now. This cliff was the only place that could help me think about everything that was going on right now. By the way the clouds moved, I could forecast that the storm that woke me up this morning was having its way of coming back pretty soon. With the way I was feeling right now, I was happy to welcome it. I still couldn't believe it. After everything that had happen it was almost impossible to bear. Her decision took me by surprise. I couldn't understand it at all. I had tried every possible thing to keep her from reaching that decision, but it wasn't enough. It was never enough!

"Hey man!" I turned around to find Quil with both of his hands in his pockets starring at me.

"Leave. I don't need anyone's pity Quil." My voice could easily give away the feeling of sadness that engulfed me. I hate it to put it that way, but it was the truth. I didn't want my thoughts to be a burden for anyone, especially to the pack.

"I'm not here to pity you. I think I know you well enough to know you would probably throw me down the cliff if that was the case." I looked back at the ocean.

"Then why are you here?" He hesitated for a while before answering my question.

"Jake,-" He hesitated a little bit. I looked back at his lack of response and I started to worry after I saw his face. "- Leah transformed today. Sam is trying to help her out, but it's not working very well." I was taken aback by the news.

"Great! That's just perfect. More problems arousing today it's just what I need to make my day." I said sarcastically. Everyone at the reservation knew about Sam's and Leah's past relationship. The ending had become a tragedy around the family and friends so much that Leah still made sure Emily remembered it every single time she could.

"Sam's a little bit worried for her. And Emily is not even a question. You know how protective he gets of her."

"Yeah." I said absentmindedly while turning again to look at the ocean. Perhaps I was being selfish about this, but the truth was that even if I felt bad for Sam and Leah my mind was somewhere else. I couldn't stop thinking about Bella and that bloodsucker getting married. I couldn't even stomach the sight of him much less picture him with the woman I loved.

"He's also worried about you, you know?"

"I think I told you I didn't need your or him taking pity on me."

"Okay, perhaps you don't need us to take pity on you Jake. But have you considered that maybe you could use a friend right now?" I could feel his stare burning into my back.

"No, I just need time to think. Alone." I said emphasizing on the last word so that he could get the hint that right now I didn't wanted to be around anyone. I just wanted to be alone and be able to put my thoughts in order.

"Fine." He turned to leave. I could hear his steps getting farther away. But before he left, he stopped and said "For what is worth Jake, love sometimes is about making sacrifices. Let her go man. Who knows, you may find your inner peace in the end." Then I heard the steps fading once again.

"Quil," He stopped after I called his name a little loudly. "Thanks."

"We're here for you Jake. Don't ever forget that." I nodded and heard him walk away to the forest again. I kept thinking about what he said. Sacrifice. It was easier to say that word than to actually be able to convert it into an action. I had tried once. I had tried to stay away and make that sacrifice, but then he left and I couldn't stay away. After that, hope took its place back into my life and my optimism took me for a ride back to the place where I am now. Back to the beginning pondering about my options with only one difference that wasn't there before, I had already known what it was to have her by my side. I had already pictured the ending of my story with her beside me, but the worst part was that I actually believed it which just made this hurt much more than before.

~ O ~

I was so confused about my feelings right now that it infuriated me. I was so glad that Edward couldn't read my mind right now. The only problem I would have when I decided to go back to my house would be Alice since her vision disappeared when I was with Jacob. But I didn't want to worry about that yet. As I reached Angela's house, I parked my truck and went to knock her door. After a couple of minutes she opened her door.

"Wow, you look like shit." I rolled my eyes at her comment while she moved to the side so that I could pass.

"Thanks." I mumbled as I walked inside her house. It was very peacefully decorated. It had pictures of nature in the walls along with family pictures. You could feel the peace within its walls. It was all organized in a very comfy way.

"Tell me what happened. Oh wait! Hold that thought. Do you want some tea or something?"

"Sure. I'll have whatever you're having." She left to get us a drink while I just started looking at some of the pictures that were hanging on the wall. She was back with two tea cups in her hand. She gave me one and I followed her into the living room sitting both on the sofa and setting our cups down on the living room middle table. "Okay. Start now."

"I wouldn't know where to even begin. Well let's say you are going out with Eric." I tried to explain my situation to her in a way that she could understand without having to tell her who was involved in mine so that she could be unbiased with her answer.

"Which I am." She interrupted while staring at me oddly.

"Okay but just let me talk till I'm finished."

"Go ahead."

"Um, okay so you're going out with Eric but something happens that you guys break up. You feel your entire world has ended with his goodbye. But then something happens. You start spending time with Mike and you find that you have so much in common with Mike. He helps you through your break up; he's there when you need him the most and makes you laugh again. Then you start feeling that the emptiness that Eric left when he broke up with you suddenly starts to fill itself again. Slowly, but filling itself to the point where you start forgetting the old you and become someone new. Someone you never thought you could be. And you love this new you. It's like she was hidden within you, and now she's free. But then Eric calls you again and tells you that he wants to be with you again. And you forgive him because you love him, right?" She just nodded. "Then Mike suddenly tells you he feels something for you too. Something stronger than what Eric feels for you. And you don't want to hurt Mike, but you don't want to let him go either. I know it's a selfish thought, but it's there. I mean, you loved every moment you spent with him. Everything with him was so different from what you used to know. But you love Eric. You get the problem?

"Wow Bella, I have to say that you are a very complicated girl." She said making a weird face as if she was astonished with my 'idea'. "But tell me something, do you feel things for Mike?"

"No! I'm only using Mike in the story hypothetically."

"I know, but do 'I' have feelings for Mike hypothetically in your story?"

"Well you feel grateful for his help when you needed it, but that's part of the friendship you formed with him."

"Close friendship?" I nodded

"Close enough to become your best friend."

"And you don't feel anything else? I men, 'I' don't feel anything else hypothetically?"

"Well, you may have an unknown feeling. Like, you can't stand it when he is hurt. You want to comfort him in any possible way. And you feel that goodbye often comes too soon and can't wait sometimes to go back." I took my cup of tea and had a small sip while a small smile appeared in my face as I started to describe Jake to Angela. It was as if I was on a trance that I couldn't get out of. "I mean, he is so caring, and thoughtful. Yet at the same time he's so free. He always does what he wants. He's so much fun to be with mainly because you can be yourself without worrying too much of what you'll do. I mean, he can be such a kid when it comes to having fun, then grow into a man in front of you without you noticing it." She started to laugh. I looked at her confusedly. Had I said something wrong? I waited for her to let me know the motive for her laugh since I didn't find my problem to be a joke. I thought she could help. I mean, that's why I was here.

"Why do I get the feeling we're not talking about Mike anymore?" She said still laughing. I retraced the words I told her. 'Damn it, I said too much.'

"How's Jake doing these days, by the way?" She asked while taking a sip of her cup of tea.

"Um, he was fine this morning, till noon."

"You were at his house before you came here?"

"Yeah."

"What happened?"

"I told him I was engaged." That word seemed to weight so much on me. I don't know why, but it bothered me so much.

"Wow Bella, congratulation!" She said as she hugged me to congratulate me on the great achievement that was marriage for some people. But for some reason, it had never been like that for me. Don't get me wrong, I loved Edward but marriage was such a huge deal.

"Yeah, thanks!" I said expressing the same weight I felt every time I had to say that word out loud.

"You don't sound too happy about it."

"It's not that, it's just there's so much more. I mean, Alice wants to do a whole big wedding and all. Jake is mad at me for being engaged. And then, there's Edward who I can't even begin to explain what I feel for him."

"I thought you said you loved him?"

"I do. But it's not the same anymore. After he came back, it hasn't been the same. I don't really think that it will be, but I still hope that it can feel remotely similar to what we used to have." Angela took my cup of tea with her free hand and set both of our cups in the middle table. Then she grabbed both of my hands and looked at me.

"Bella, look at me." I complied. "What do you feel for Jacob?" I was looking at her not knowing what to answer. How could I answer what I still didn't know? Then I looked past her to the picture hanging in the far end wall behind her. It was of a sunset in the beach. I was mesmerized with its beauty, it was breathtaking. For some reason it seemed oddly familiar. I stand up and walk closer to it till I was just a couple of feet away.

"Where is this?" I looked back at her. She just shrugged.

"I don't know. My dad took it when I was very little." I nodded at her then turned back to look at the picture. Then it suddenly clicked. Jacob's cliff; it was a panoramic picture of the ocean and the sun setting from Jacob's cliff. The one I had jumped off with the crazy idea to feel Edward closer to me.

"I have to go." I turned around to face Angela. "Thanks for hearing me out Angela. I really needed to get this out of my system. But please don't tell anyone. Especially Jessica, you know how she gets."

"Don't worry. Your problem is safe with me. Or should I say 'my hypothetical problem'." I laughed while picking up my things and walking towards the door. Angela opened it for me. I started to open my truck's door when Angela stopped me.

"Bella," She walked up to me. "You never answered my question." I shook my head tiredly.

"I don't know." She smiled as if she knew something I didn't. Then I got into my truck and rolled my window down as always.

"You know, people often say that you don't know what you have until you lose it. But if you really think about it, sometimes loosing what you have had can make you discover many other things you would have missed if you hadn't lost something in the first place." I smiled at Angela. Coming here was exactly what I needed. Angela didn't know either one of them well enough to be able to choose sides, For once, it gave me great comfort to know that I could still talk to someone outside this crazy world I was living in and hear a different perspective.

"Thanks Angela, for everything. And, uh, I'll try to keep in touch."

"Anytime. Good luck!" She said while I started to reverse my truck and with a wave of my hand I said goodbye to Angela and headed back into another problem. It should've been the biggest one, but I was still worried about Jacob right now. 'Maybe I should call him when I get home.' With that thought in my head I kept driving towards my house. I turned on the new car stereo that Edward had bought me since I broke the one that his brother had given me for his birthday.

_The sun is breaking in your eyes, to start a new day._

_This broken heart can still survive, with a touch of your grace._

_Shadows fade into the light._

_I am by your side where love will find you._

I started listening to the lyrics of the song feeling a little moved by them while I tried to preset the station on the car stereo so that I could at least say I had used it once. After I finally found the way to do it, I looked back up at the road and abruptly stopped. I felt blood draining from my face at the sight I had in front of me. Not a couple of feet away stood Victoria with a huge smile on her face as if she knew she had already won this fight. I blinked twice just in case I was only imagining things. My hands where frozen on the wheel not knowing what to do. I mean, there's a vampire with killer speed who is lusting after my blood and right now has an easy opening for it. I tried to think of what I could do, but nothing came to mind. I couldn't think of one thing that could help me win this fight against her. But then her smile was gone, and it was replaced with a look of hatred. I kept starring at her too stunned to even move. I mean, what was the point? She was way too fast for me to even think of escaping. Then suddenly she started walking slowly to my car. My breath hitched when I saw her walking towards me and I thought this was my end. But then she stopped. 'Maybe she wants to flavor this moment as much as she can.' I couldn't understand why she didn't lunge for me right now and get this over with, but I got my answer a couple of seconds later when out of the forest came a gray wolf with black spots on his back and stood in front of my truck growling at Victoria. She growled back at him but hesitated into making a move. He also started walking towards her slowly until she turned around and run away again. I got out of my truck a little concerned as I watch Victoria slip through our fingers again while the wolf just sat there in front of my truck and stayed there watching everything.

"What are you doing? Aren't you going to chase her?" The wolf turned his face towards me but stayed seated down in front of me. Then everything clicked when I remembered what happened to Jacob the day he broke one of Sam's many rules. I took a deep breath and turned around to get into my truck again when the wolf bite my shirt for me to stay. I turned around to look at him and saw that three more wolves were approaching from the same direction Victoria had disappeared to, followed by none other than Sam dressed in only jeans. This took me by surprise. I wasn't expecting Sam to be here at all. I started looking around to see if I could find Jacob but he was nowhere to be found.

"Come, I'll drive you home. The rest of you follow us through the trees." As he said those words the wolves scattered around into the forest two on each side of the road. I could only nod at him since he was already opening the door for me to get into the passenger's seat. As soon as I was in, he went around into the driver's seat and started driving my truck. I kept looking through my window with the hope of seeing Jacob arrive, but nothing happened.

"He's not coming." Apparently even Sam was able to pick my nervousness.

"I should have known. I guess you guys already know, right?" His silent answered my question.

"He'll forgive you."

"There's nothing to forgive. He knew this was bound to happen sooner or later. I guess I just hoped that it wouldn't hurt him this much." He kept watching the road. After a couple of minutes in silence, he decided to talk again.

"Don't get me wrong Bella, but you were going to hurt him anyways."

"You're not worried that I just hurt him worst than anyone else?" He shook his head.

"It's not your fault. He needs to get over you. He knew what he was getting himself into when he made the decision of fighting for you. The only thing that has changed with your engagement is that instead of him having options, you've narrowed them all down to the only answer everyone knew he would reach sooner or later."

"How can you feel this way? Isn't he like a brother to you? You are their leader. Don't you care if his hurt?" He shook his head again.

"This is a path he chose on his own despite everyone else's better judgment of the situation."

"So he has to worry for your problems, but you don't even care if he gets hurt with his? Is that how it works?" It was infuriating enough to know that after everything Jacob had to endure for his family Sam, who is the leader, wouldn't even help him.

"Bella, you're looking too much into this." The difference in our voices was unmistakable. While he was calm, I was still ranting for him to go help Jake.

"Am I? You're part of his family Sam."

"So are you the moment he let you in on everything about us, but that doesn't make any difference. There's a limit to what you can do for someone. The rest is up to them. Bottom line is that, whether he is hurt or not, he still needs to let you go." If it would've been me the one with the werewolves' ability, I am pretty sure that I would've burst into one by now. Talking with Sam wasn't making me feel any better about Jake and the way I had hurt him. I turned to look out the window again to try to get my mind off from thinking about this whole mess.

After a couple of minutes driving into the road, we were about to enter my street when Sam stopped the truck. I looked at him curiously since we hadn't even reached my house and I was pretty sure he knew which one it was.

"Why are we stopping?"

"This is as far as we go. Don't worry, you're safe here." With that he hopped out of my truck and left running into the forest. I climbed over to the drivers' seat, closed the door and drove over to my house. I understood then why Sam had stopped where he did. A silver Volvo was in front of my house which only meant that Edward wasn't very far. I suddenly felt the urge to just drive through my house, but I knew I had to face this. I took a deep breath and parked my truck in my driveway. 'Great. Today should be put as a holiday on worldwide calendars.' I got out of my truck ready to face whatever torment lay inside my house.

The fact that Edward hadn't come running to open the door for me only showed that Charlie was in the house. Although in most days I would find it to be an advantage not to have him there while Edward was, today I was just so grateful for his presence. I opened the door to see Charlie was watching TV as usual and Edward was accompanying him on the couch pretending to also be watching TV. He didn't have to say anything for his face more than showed what he wanted to say to me. I greeted them with a smile on my face as if nothing had ever happened.

"Hey dad, did you already eat?" He waved a greeting in returned as his eyes stood glued to the TV screen watching the game. I turned towards the kitchen to make Charlie something to eat since I knew cooking wasn't one of his best traits. As I had expected, Edward followed me into the kitchen. I started taking some pans out of the cabinets until he stopped at my side glaring at me. I breathed in once again before I looked at him.

"We need to talk." It was all he said before going upstairs into my room. I took out a bag of chicken breast and put it to defrost while I went straight to my room to 'talk' with Edward. I opened the door and closed it behind me. He was starring out the window calmly.

"What does it takes to keep you safe Bella? How hard is it for you to understand the danger that surrounds you?" I rolled my eyes at his back.

"Oh please Edward, it was just for a moment. I needed to talk to Jacob and I knew that Alice wouldn't agree." At this he turned around to face me.

"Exactly! Do you know why? Because she understands how much you mean to me."

"I had to get out Edward." I said tiredly.

"To see Jacob?" I looked at him confusedly after his question. There was something about it that put me on alert. He made it sound as if there was something else bothering him besides me disappearing and have a little encounter on the road with Victoria.

"Is there something wrong with visiting Jacob?" I asked him treading carefully around the subject. My question caught him off guard. He started looking at the wall as if he was trying to hide something from me. "What's wrong with visiting Jacob, Edward?" I asked him again.

"Nothing. You're missing the point here."

"Am I? I guess I've been missing a lot lately." I kept looking at him aware of all of his movements. The way he was trying to avoid my eyes when he spoke to me only pointed out that I was doing the opposite of missing the point. In fact, I felt like I was hitting a straight jackpot here. "Like the moment you started lying to me for instance." I could see my words had grabbed his attention as he turned to look straight to my eyes.

"I am not lying to you Bella. When I say 'danger' I meant all of your actions so far today, not just the one of seeing the werewolf. I almost go crazy when I heard that dog's thought of Victoria and not knowing where to look for you since Alice can't see you when you're near them."

"The dog's name is Embry, Edward." I tried to correct him.

"That's beside the point again Bella." He walked up to me and grabbed my face with both hands. "Whether it was near the dog or Victoria or whoever wants to separate you from me, the point is that you got yourself in danger because you didn't say anything."

"What would you have done Edward? Besides letting me know that you didn't approve of my idea of visiting Jake and tried to convince me not to go, what else could you have done?"

"If you wouldn't have gone in the first place, Victoria wouldn't have found you. So I think that even if I had tried to convince you from not going, which I still sustain that it's not safe for you to go visit the dog, my reason would've been right all along." I got out of his hands and glared at him.

"That dog, as you call him, has a name Edward. His name is Jake!" I started to get mad at him. There was no way that I would let him dictate what I could or couldn't do with my life.

"Jake, Embry, Sam, whoever it was doesn't matter Bella! The point is that you need to be more careful with your actions and decisions. I was about to go over there and break the treaty today when Alice told me that she couldn't see you."

"Well you better start learning how to stay calm when Alice can't see me because there's no way you're going to tell me where I can or can't go. I am friends with Jake and all of his family, and you're going to have to deal with it regardless of what they are to you." With that said I turned around and got out of my room closing the door behind me and heading downstairs to finish making Charlie's dinner.

I started making Charlie's dinner a little distracted after the discussion I had with Edward up in my room. I couldn't believe he would try to restrict me from seeing Jake. Things were definitely not the same as before anymore.

"You okay Bells?" I turned to see my father on my side.

"Huh?"

"You think the chicken's done now?" I followed his stare to the chicken I was making Charlie which was starting to show signs of burn on the side. I took the fork and turned the chicken quickly before it could get completely burned.

"Crap! Sorry dad, guess you're having an extra well done chicken for tonight."

"You okay Bells? Don't tell me you're having problems with Cullen." I rolled my eyes at him. It was always the same question over and over again. I really didn't know how Edward convinced him to allow me to marry him. Charlie disliked almost everything that had to do with 'the Cullens' since he left me last year. I could bet right now that he was anxiously waiting for the day I'd tell him that Edward and I had broken up.

"We're fine dad. Sorry you have nothing to celebrate yet." He laughed at my comment.

"Well, hope is the last thing one loses before dying, isn't that what people say?"

"Great dad, thanks! Why don't you eat your dinner now? Veggies are in the microwave."

"You're welcome sweetie. Oh, Jake called a couple of hours ago. Sounded pretty down, but wanted you to call him when you'd reach home." The moment I heard Jake's name I turned to look at my father while my mind started wondering around the day I had spent with Jacob today. Was he alright after the news I had brought him today? This was so unlike Jake.

"I'll call him later." My father's face clearly made me retrace my words before he could say anything else. "Fine, I'll call him now."

"Thank you." I grabbed the phone and started dialing Jake's number. I still couldn't believe he would call so soon. Usually many days would pass before he apologizes and decided to talk to me again.

"Hello!"

"Oh, hey Billy, is Jake around?"

"Bella, hold on. Jake!" I could hear Billy calling Jake from the distance. Not even a minute had passed and Jake was already at the phone.

"Bella!"

"Hey Jake, um dad tells me you called." I tried to sound casual about it though, truth be told, I was really glad that he had called.

"I heard what happened. You okay?"

"Yeah, it was nothing but Victoria escaped again."

"I'm not concerned about her right now. We'll find her later. Don't worry about it." There was a long pause before I spoke again not knowing what else to say.

"Well, is there anything else you want to say Jake?"

"Yeah, as a matter of fact I do have something else to say. Just, I don't want to say it over the phone. Is it alright if we meet later? I could go over to Charlie's tonight-"

"I'm too exhausted today Jake. Do you mind if we do this tomorrow?"

"Sure sure, no prob. We can talk over breakfast, are you up for it?"

"Sounds good."

"My house, your house, or do you want to go out for breakfast?"

"Out would be great."

"Okay then, how about we go over to the coffee shop?"

"Yeah sure, no prob. Is nine okay?" He hesitated a little bit before answering.

"Nine it is. I'll see you tomorrow then. Night Bella!"

"Goodnight Jacob." With that I hanged up. He didn't sound too depressed as I thought he would, but he definitely wasn't my Jacob when he spoke to me. There was something missing in his greeting. The enthusiasm which he usually talked to me was gone. I turned to put the phone back to its receiver when I saw Edward starring at me from the kitchen. Charlie was eating his dinner while I motioned Edward to follow me outside to talk. He walked behind me till I stopped in front of my truck and turned around to look at him.

"Listen Bella I know that it is hard for you to comply with my request because he is your friend, but trust me when I say it's just a method of precaution."

"Precaution from what Edward?"

"You saw what happened today Bella."

"I'm still here, aren't I?"

"Please try to understand, I can't have that happening again."

"It won't happen again."

"Bella-"

"Edward, they protect me as much as you do. Now I know you are like sworn enemies or whatever, but they are my friends too. I'm pretty sure they will do the same thing they did today to keep me safe in one whole piece, alive as you want me to be. So don't worry too much about them." He hesitated a little bit though I could see in the reflection of his eyes that I had already won this battle.

"Fine, I'll trust your judgment on this. But if it occurs again, you'll have to consider mine. Truce?"

"Truce." I smiled happily enjoying my triumph. He caressed my face with his cold hands and kissed me softly.

"I'll see you in your room."

"Okay." I said as he got inside his car and drove it away over to his house as usual. I kept looking down the road as a feeling of incompleteness engulfed itself around me. To say there was something different in my relationship with Edward was an understatement, for tonight I realized that the problem was not a difference in our relationship but what had been missing for quite a while now. Part of me had died the day he left, but something had started to grow at the same time in his absence. The full moon that adorned tonight clear sky left me with one thought: 'Jacob'.

**Authors Note**: Well this is the end of chapter 7. I hope you guys liked it. Please review it and let me know what you think.


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Twilight series characters. They all belong to Stephanie Meyer. L

**Authors Note**: I want to thank all of my reviewers for taking the time to give me feedback on what you think about the story. You guys are the best! So I decided to dedicate this chapter to you. I hope you guys like it as much as I loved and enjoyed writing it.

Chapter 8

Morning had come quicker than I thought. Edward had come as usual last night but had to leave early this morning to pose for the designer that was making his wedding tux. I, off course, had no objection towards him leaving since I was meeting Jacob in a couple of minutes to eat breakfast and 'talk'. For some reason I was feeling a little anxious about this morning. I'm not usually the type of girl that would worry too much about her appearance but right now I was looking straight at my wardrobe thinking what looked good enough for me to wear this morning. 'What am I doing? This is Jacob we're talking about. I don't need to start worrying about this right now.' I picked a black tank and some jeans to go with it, fixed my hair and headed downstairs to let Charlie know where I was going.

"Wow, you're up early."

"I'm going to go have a talk with Jake." He gave me a questioning look but I ignored it. Since Edward could read thoughts, I figured the less I told my dad the better.

"You're going to talk with Jake? This early? I don't think he's even up yet."

"He is. See you later dad." I said as I quickly grabbed my keys and headed for the Coffee Shop. After a couple of minutes driving, I found the place. When I went to park my truck, I saw Jake was leaning on his car already waiting for me. He smiled at me when I pulled over to the parking spot next to his car. He opened my door and chuckled.

"What?" I said as I looked at him trying to hold his laugh.

"And here I was yesterday worrying about me having trouble getting here at nine in the morning."

"Hey, I was held up by Charlie. You can blame him later if you want."

"Sure sure. Come on, I'm starving"

"When are you not?" He laughed as he closed my truck door after I got out and we both headed inside the coffee shop. We picked a table for two near the window since we were having one of the few sunny days here at Forks. The waiter came to our table and handed us the menu to order. I started looking through when Jake started to order.

"I'll have the two eggs scrambled with sausage and toast and could I include two hotcakes with that? Oh, and can you bring us a jar of orange juice? Thank you." I looked astonished at Jake as the waiter nodded and wrote his complete order.

"Um, I'll just have the french toasts, thanks." I ordered as I folded the menu and give it back to the waiter. After the waiter was gone, I turned to look at Jake again astounded after everything that he ordered. "Are you sure you're going to be able to eat all of that?" He smirked at me but then change his face to a serious one.

"Listen Bella, about the other day. When you told me you where-" He hesitated a little bit as he couldn't even finish the sentence but kept trying to explain. "Your news did take me by surprise that day and even if I knew that there was a possibility of you getting engaged, I still wasn't prepared to hear it."

"Jake-"

"No. Let me finish. Before you say anything, I never meant to hurt you that day with what I said. I just, I need you to understand Bella that I had to ask you to leave. When I lose my control many things can happen, even ones that I don't want to. And I still don't know how to control my anger that well so I hope that you understand that I am not sorry for kicking you out. Please don't take it the wrong way. And about the news, well it's you're decision and I guess I'll just have to respect it."

"So you're okay with it?"

"Not quite okay with it, but I'll just have to deal with it." I felt like a weight was taken off my shoulder after I talked to Jacob. Seeing he was okay with me once more made me breathe normal again as I felt all the anxiety from this morning leave me. After everything between both of us went back to normal, he was my Jacob once again. "And well about the food question, trust me I can eat my entire order and everything you leave in this table." I laughed at him.

"I'm sorry I hurt you Jake. It wasn't my intention at all."

"I know. Let's just talk about something else. Tell me about what happened with Victoria yesterday. I'm pretty sure I would rather enjoy hearing your version of the story instead of having to hear Embry's thoughts as he brags about his victory over Dracula's girlfriend." I smiled at him. There was something mesmerizing about his eyes that just kept me looking at them and had me lost for a moment. I took myself out of the trance I was in to start talking about Victoria though there was not much to say but the fact that she got away.

"I don't know what he has to brag about. She escaped once again."

"You're safe. That's what matters." I rolled my eyes at him as the waiter came with our orders. We thank him after he set the plates down and started eating our breakfast. I watched as Jake started to eat his hotcakes first. It was still hard to believe he could eat so much now.

"Well I don't really know if there's a lot more to say about Victoria. She appeared almost in front of me then Embry came through the trees and got in front of my truck ready to fight her off. A couple of minutes later when Sam and the others appeared she ran away. I told them to go after her but Sam just took my truck and drove me back to my house while the others followed us through the forest." He looked away after I told him my version of what had happened yesterday. It wasn't my entire version since I left out the part where I was secretly hoping that he would have come out of the forest instead of Sam or Embry, but that part he didn't need to know.

"We'll catch her soon. We've been getting better lately at being able to smell the traces she's leaving." I smiled at him again.

"I'm not worried. I feel like the daughter of the president of the United States with everyone trying to protect me, you know." I started picking at my food while he laughed at my comment.

"I'm sure you do, but hey it's not our fault that you got yourself into this mess in the first place."

"Oh great, I didn't know I had a huge sign in my forehead that reads 'troublemaker'."

"No, more like 'trouble magnet'. You're actually excelling at being one too." As we both laughed at his comment I noticed that this is what I really needed. Jake always found a way of taking me away from all the trouble that normally was formed around me.

"This was a good idea. I haven't eaten French toasts in a while."

"Why don't you make them? You know how to cook."

"I thought the expert chef here was you and I was nothing but an apprentice."

"Well you know you are welcome to keep learning from me anytime you want. It will only cost you the gas you use to get to my house and a promise of a good laugh once you're there."

"Wow, you're so full of yourself."

"Well you started it. Hey what are you doing later today?"

"I don't know. Why?"

"Well I was thinking on going to the beach. You know, relax today. Do you want to come?" I was silent for a moment. "Before you say no, think about it. I promise we'll have fun. You're not going to regret it I assure you."

"Are you begging me to go?"

"Is it that obvious?" I laughed at his response. "Please, I just want to get away for a couple of hours, have some peace you know. It'll be like old times." I thought about it. The beach was not exactly one of my greatest places to be but there was a part of me that felt like a little adventure wouldn't hurt me at all. Besides, he was right on the part where I needed to get away but I didn't know how I could get rid of Edward so that I could go with Jake to the beach.

"I'll try."

"Bella… try? What are you afraid of?"

"I have to say something to Edward unless you want him to come with us." His face made me laugh so badly. He made a face as if he had just eaten the worst food he had ever tasted and found no way of being able to take the taste out of his mouth.

"Just tell him Charlie's coming to watch a game with Billy and dad invited you to come visit us."

"He'll know. He can read his thoughts, you know that."

"What if I say I'll take care of it, would you change your mind and come?" I hesitated for a moment, but then I nodded.

"Fine, you find a way and I'll go." He smiled and looked at me with hopeful eyes. As I looked back at him I noticed how he looked like a little kid on Christmas after opening his present and receiving just what he had wanted all along. It was so amazing how he could be so serious one moment and change so quickly to being a small kid full of life in just seconds.

"I promise you won't regret it."

"I'm pretty sure I won't." I said in between laughs. While I had finished already my plate, Jake was still on his second. I finished my orange juice and kept looking at him as he ate his second plate. "Can I ask you something? But you must promise me you will be honest with me." He swallowed his food and looked up from his plate.

"I've always been honest with you Bella." I nodded at him.

"Would you tell me if I were hurting you?" I could see that my question took him by surprise but he looked away, as if thinking what to say, and then back at me.

"No."

"Why? Is it really that hard to just let me know?"

"I know that if I tell you, I would just be hurting you." He calmly said before starting to eat again but I wasn't ready to give it a rest yet.

"Don't you think it's a little unfair that you won't allow yourself to hurt me but you allow me to hurt you even without me knowing it?"

"No."

"Why?"

"Bella, you're not going to win this one so just let it go." He said and smiled at me as he took a sip from his orange juice.

"No. I want to know why."

"Fine, because even if you hurt me I know I'll be able to deal with it sooner or later."

"If, don't you mean WHEN?"

"Why are you so inclined in fighting this Bella?"

"Because, Jacob, you're my best friend. Don't you think you're hurting me more by just not letting me know, or do you just think that I would never find out?"

"Okay, let's say for instance that I let you know WHEN you hurt me. What can you do about it? Will you be able to make it go away?"

"Well I can try not doing it again or just not mention anything that might hurt you while I'm around you." He shook his head and looked away.

"That won't work."

"Why?"

"Because Bella," He looked seriously at me "if I were to tell you, you wouldn't be able to be yourself around me. You would constantly be feeling the need to protect me from yourself which will only push you farther away from me. Bottom line is, right now I have you in my life and that's not something I am willing to compromise."

"I'm not some fragile doll that can't handle being hurt Jake." I told him. I was so tired of people trying to protect me every time.

"You're welcome to prove me wrong Bella, but it's only fair to let you know that right now history is on my side." He smirked. This time I did let it go as I watched him eat the rest of his breakfast. What he had said was entirely true though I would never confess it to him. To admit that he was right would only just inflate his ego more than it was right now. "Speaking about history, I do remember when I told you about my new car. Well, is not actually new, but I did finish it already. Would you like me to give you a small tour in it?"

"What can you actually show me that I still haven't seen in here Jake? It's Forks!"

"Hey! It's not about Forks, it's about my car. I'm pretty sure Forks will look different to you once you see it from my car's window." I laughed at his proud way of defending his car.

"I have my truck here you know…"

"Just leave it here for a couple of minutes. I'm sure it's not going anywhere without your keys and besides it's only a ride." I smiled at him and gave in. After all, I also did remembered when he told me he was finishing putting it together.

"You know, I thought I was supposed to be a good influence on you. Now you're manipulating me into things."

"Not even."

"Yes even! Tell me when have you wanted something from me and still haven't been able to get away with it?"

"You'd be surprised. Come on." As soon as he finished his breakfast, he paid for our food and we started walking towards his car.

"I can't believe you put all of this together." I said as I looked Jake's car over. I remembered when he put our bikes together, but it wasn't the same. This is an entire car we are talking about. It wasn't exactly new as he had said, but it wasn't bad. I felt so proud of him after seeing his car completely finished. He was amazing at putting things together.

"It's not much."

"No, seriously Jake this is awesome." I said excitedly.

"I know is not a Volvo, but it runs."

"Are you kidding me?" I looked at him. "Jake, you build this. Volvos are made by machines you know. You like took everything from scratch and put it together piece by piece and it runs." I turned to look at the car again. "This is really cool. You know what? Now that I think about it, I can actually say I helped you put this together." He looked at me confusedly.

"What are you taking about? I don't remember seeing you anywhere near when I was making this car."

"Oh, but I do remember a special message you gave to me on my prom night. My message got you some of the parts you used in this car. So technically, you wouldn't have been able to finish this baby without me." I saw him rolled his eyes at me and I chuckled as he opened the passengers' door for me.

"Just get in Bella." I laughed as I got in. He closed the door after I was in and walked over to the drivers' side. After he got in, we started driving through the road. I didn't even know where we were going, but it didn't really matter. The entire peacefulness and the view I had through my window compensated for the unknown destination.

"Jake, what are you planning to do once you graduate?" He looked at me confused and shrugged.

"I don't know. Why?"

"Well, you are going to start your senior year right now. It's usually normal to know or at least have an idea on what you want to do after high school."

"Are you trying to give me advice on how to be normal?"

"Ouch!" His comment earned him a friendly slap to the arm as I chuckled away his comment. Although I might have to admit, he is not that far away from the truth. He tried to fake his hurt although I am pretty sure he said it just to not make me feel bad. I know he was a lot stronger now than a couple of years back. My slap definitely didn't hurt him at all.

"You deserved it" I chuckled. "Besides, it's only a question."

"Mine was too!" He jokingly protested.

"Sure sure." I said as I rolled my eyes at him. After a couple of minutes in silence, I heard him take a deep breath before breaking it.

"I wanted to go to a university outside Forks area, but you know... things change after you find yourself not being able to control your own future anymore." I noticed a little regret in his voice as he told me about his past plans. This may sound selfish but for a moment there I had stopped breathing when he said he was going away. I couldn't picture a life were Jake was not in it.

"Then perhaps is a good thing this happened." I said as I turned away from the window to look him in the eyes. Again I was mesmerized by them. They had a strange light inside that had me hypnotized. It was the intensity of his look what had me questioning for the first time if I had made the right decision about my future. He was the first one to break the look as he turned away to watch the road again. I turned to watch the view out from my window again when I realized the passage looked awfully familiar. Many times last year I had driven through this passage looking for inner peace. It was even embossed unconsciously on my mind.

"You're kidnapping me!" I jokingly said as I realized that he was driving straight to his house.

"Well, it's actually not kidnapping when you go along with it Bella. Take it as if… I'm doing you a favor."

"What makes you think I want to go along with it?"

"Come on! You can't fool me Bells. I thought I had already told you that."

"You're so full of yourself." He chuckled. About half an hour later we passed his house down the road as he continued driving straight down the road. I looked at him confused.

"Okay, didn't we just pass your house?"

"We're not going to my house."

"Where are you taking me hostage then?" He laughed.

"I want to show you something."

"And that requires not telling me where we're going?"

"Will you wait and see? Really, is not that far now." I kept looking down the road he was driving through as we started to go uphill. I tried to guess where he was taking me but failed miserably. Not knowing where he was going had me feeling a little excited. I noticed that lately I had been feeling like this whenever Jake was around. He was so spontaneous that I never knew what to expect next from him. The only thing I knew was that around him I felt alive. We finally stopped up hill. When I looked to my left, I knew immediately where we were.

"Come on." We both opened the door and got out of the car. I walked to his side as I took in the beautiful view of the ocean. He started walking forward and I followed behind him till we were standing close to the cliff; His cliff. The sun's reflection in the water along with the sound of the waves crashing against the rocks had me stunned. It was indeed a beautiful sight.

"Jake, this is beautiful." I turned to find him starring at me.

"It is complete now." He said in a low voice.

"What is?" He looked away towards the ocean.

"Do you want to jump?" I stared at him waiting for the 'kidding' word, but it never came.

"No. That's too deep."

"You already did it once." I tried not to think of that moment.

"Um, yeah and I almost drown, remember?" I still couldn't believe he was serious about this.

"Come on, just this once. Don't think about anything, just be free. I'll be right behind you." He insisted. I thought about the first time I had jumped from this cliff. Everything had changed since then; even me. I wanted to do it. Just forget about everything that was happening in my life and just do it. It was the perfect opportunity. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. My mind was set. I opened my eyes and ran towards the cliff. I smiled as I jumped from it and spread my arms before welcoming the ocean. I felt exactly what Jake experienced every time he jumped from it… freedom.

Just like he said, I felt him pulled me over to shore. This time I was conscious of how he had his hand on my side and helped me out of the water. He dragged me out until I could put my feet on the sand and started walking beside him. But just like the clumsy idiot I was, I tripped and made us both fall near the shore. I saw him laugh at me and couldn't help myself. I started laughing along with him as I tried to get up. I felt so at ease and a bit childish. It was refreshing.

I saw him tried to get up again and I smirked as he looked at me confused. Before he could react to my smirk, I pushed him down the water and started running to shore laughing out loud. I turned my face to look back as he started running after me.

"You're dead Bells!" I heard him yelled at me as I kept laughing at him. I felt his arms grabbed me from behind as he lifted me out of the sand.

"Ahhh! Let me go." I started kicking and screaming as I heard him laugh at my complaining.

"My pleasure." I couldn't say anything else for he let go of me right on the water again. I got up and saw him laughing at me before he turned around to walk out of the beach. I ran to him and jumped on his back. I tried to overthrow him into the water again but he was way stronger than me. He took my hands, which were at his neck, and turned me around to face him. We were both laughing so hard we were a little out of breath. It was as if we both went back to being kids again without a care in the world. I looked at his eyes as our laugh went down to chuckles now.

"You're mean!"

"You started it!" He said chuckling. I kept looking at his eyes. For the first time I could see Jacob entirely as he was. I could see the happiness in his eyes. I could see the walls he had built between us since Edward's return shatter in front of me. I could see all of his restraints broke without him even noticing. And then I saw my downfall as I got caught in the intensity of his look. A current of shock went through my entire body as I felt his hand caress my cheek. I unconsciously began to close my eyes before feeling his lips slowly crashing mine. Nothing else mattered right now. I began to taste his salty lips as he got more demanding and possessive and pulled me towards him with his arms around my torso. I couldn't stop. There was no way I could fight this. Or better yet, I found myself not wanting to fight this. I put my hands on his face and then around his neck to deepen the kiss. He kept kissing me senseless until he broke the kiss and kept his forehead touching mine as we were both out of breath. I was about to say something when he put a finger to my lips.

"Don't say anything." He whispered to me. "I'll take you to your truck." My brain was clearly not functioning well right now. I couldn't believe what had just happened. I needed to think.

**End of Chapter:** Well, I hope you guys liked it. Now please give me your thoughts on how should I continue with this story and as always please review it.


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